Friday, June 08, 2007

Of Course They Did News

Fans unfurled Tibetan & Taiwan flags at the RSL v China game last night in Salt Lake and were tossed out of the stadium for it! What is going on here? Don't we have freedom of speech anymore?

~and~

The World Cup in Germany started exactly one year ago today. The next one starts in approximately 3 years.


Gold Cup Action:
(all times central)
Thu Jun 7 scores-
-USA 1-0 Guatemala - USA goal by Clint Dempsey.
Match report from USA Soccer.
Match report from CONCACAF.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Match report & player ratings by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Match report by Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News.
Match report by Phil Collin of the LA Daily News.
Match report & player ratings from the New York Times. (These ratings are ridiculous high though - you would think the USA won 5-0.)
Match report from the Orange County Register.
Match report by Andrea Canales for Top Drawer Soccer.
Match report by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune.
Match report from Yanks Abroad.
Post-games notes, player ratings & video of the goal from Steven Goff of the Washington Post on his Soccer Insider blog.
Post-game analysis in the most beautifully biased way from Dan Loney on his Dan Loney Says It All blog.
Post-game analysis by Andrea Canales at Soccernet.
Post-game quotes from Canales on her Sideline Views blog.
Post-game notes from Luis Bueno on that same blog.
Post-game analysis by Jen Chang of Soccernet.
Post-game notes by Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Player ratings by Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America.
Post-game analysis by Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated.
Commentary from the LA Daily News.
Post-game notes from the LA Daily News.
Post-game analysis by J Hutcherson of the US Soccer Players Assoc.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

du Nord Three Stars Of The Game:
3. Landon Donovan - showed the cool and calm poise badly missing from the Team since Claudio Reyna left. He held the ball well, and fed his teammates time and time again. And he did all of this while being stuck out on the right wing. Why he was playing out there I will never understand. Put him in the middle of the field and let him do his damage. Every from the hinterlands he had a very good game.
2. Carlos Ruiz - the Guate & Dallas forward was, as usual, a major irritant for the full 90 minutes. He drew tons of fouls with his floppy and flailing antics. He badgered and scrapped his way to his teams few chances of scoring, which weren't very serious. But imagine where they would be with out the little fish. No where. He is the whole team. Don't you just HATE this guy. He loves it. So do I. But in the end I wish he would turn on the skills instead of the ills.
1. Cint Dempsey - the battler was back. He played like Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns. He took the punches and kept getting up, as the opponent literally tried to kick the crap out of him. Then with one quick powerful thrust the opponent was flat on his back in the middle of the ring. Ball in net. Game over. Deuce is victorious again.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno on his Sideline Views blog got some great quotes from the Guatemalan coach Hernan Dario Gomez.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer brings us audio of post-game press conference from USA coach Bob Bradley and goal scorer Clint Dempsey. Download or listen here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Official game photos.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Read the official USA team blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from the game:
-That USA goal was a thing of pure beauty. I went back and watched it. 4 quick touches, a couple short sprints and a well timed run - Boom. Game over. Bornstein gets the ball at midfield. Passes to Beasley on the sideline about 25 yards up field. DMB heads into space for Twellman to run on to. Taylor then beats his man to the end line, and crosses on the ground to the middle of the box where Deuce Dempsey is crashing. Dempsey slams it home! Quality.
-What was Onyewu thinking after he got that first yellow card. I don't care if it was an iffy call. He still got booked. Then he mows a guy down. A guy who's is not within 5 yards of a ball that is being covered already by another defender. What was going on with him. Probably sheer frustration over all the floppy crap Guatemala was laying on him. But that is what they do. Ruiz is the master. Gooch got schooled.
-I thought Benny Feilhaber, Frankie Hejduk, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Bornstein & Eddie Johnson had sub-par games for the USA, and could have contributed more than they did.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other Gold Cup Matches & Scores:
-El Salvador 2-1 Trinidad & Tobago - ES goals by Ramon Sanchez & Dennis Alas. T&T goal by Silvio Spann.
Match report from CONCACAF.
Wed Jun 6 scores-
-Costa Rica 1-2 Canada - CR goal by Walter Centeno. Can goals both by Julian de Guzman.
-Guadaloupe 1-1 Haiti - Guad goal by Cedrick Fiston. Hai goal by Mones Cherry (PK).
Fri Jun 8 matches-
-Panama v Honduras - 6pm on Galavision
-Mexico v Cuba - 8pm on Univision
-Sat Jun 9 matches-
Guatemala v El Salvador - 2pm on Telefutura
Trinidad & Tobago v USA - 4pm on FSC
Canada v Guadeloupe - 6pm on Galavision
Haiti v Costa Rica - 8pm on Galavision
-Sun Jun 10 matches-
Hondura v Mexico - 3pm on Univision
Panama v Cuba - 5pm on Galavision
-Mon Jun 11 matches-
Costa Rica v Guadeloupe - 6pm on Galavision
Haiti v Canada - 8pm on Galavision
-Tue Jun 12 matches-
USA v El Salvador - 6pm on FSC
Trinidad & Tobago v Guatemala - 8pm on Telefutura
-Wed Jun 13 matches-
Cuba v Honduras - 7pm on Telefutura
Mexico v Panama - 9pm on Univision
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer America previews the last four Gold Cup participants:
-Mexico
-Cuba
-Honduras
-Panama
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep at Soccernet says Mexico & Canada(!?!?) will give the USA a run for the Gold Cup.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated previews the Mexican efforts for this Gold Cup.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS games & scores this week(end):
(all times central)
Wed Jun 6
-Toronto 1-2 New York
Thu Jun 7
-Houston 2-1 Colorado - Hou goals by Joseph Ngwenya & Stuart Holden. Colo goal by Jose Cancela (PK).
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
Post-game notes by Fallas.
More notes from Fallas on his Soccer y Futbol blog, about Stuart Holden & other fun topics.
Great post-game notes from George Tanner of the Rocky Mountain News on the FC Rocky blog (which is 1 year old today - happy birthday Rock.)
Sat Jun 9
-Chicago v Chivas - 7:30 on FSC & FSE
-Dallas v Los Angeles - 7:30 on HDNet & Direct Kick
Sun Jun 10
-DC v New York - 12 Noon on TeleFutura
-Columbus v Houston - 4:00 on Direct Kick
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Stuart Holden was on the field all of 33 seconds when blasted that fantastic shot to the back post to win it for Houston. Wow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Firchau of Chicago's Daily Southtown says the Fire team is still trying to figure out how to make Toyota Park "Their Home".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with an article on New England's first year Irishman Bryan Byrne.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his Red Card blog says the Fire hope to have an answer from Marcelo Salas by Sunday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch says Crew boss Big Sig put the kibosh on forward Andy Herron joining Team Costa Rica for the Gold Cup. Herron is cool with that too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Brian Forbes of the Denver Post with the story of hometown boy Conor Casey and his return with the Colorado Rapids.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Deseret Morning News with the story of Real Salt Lake's friendly 1-0 win over China last night. Alecko Eskandarian with the RSL goal. Yes, RSL beat China! Does this lessen the USA win over China? Yes. Does it bode well for RSL? Yes it does. Is this an extremely brutal loss for China? Oh yes it is. And it was Jason Kreis's first win as the coach of RSL. Now they gotta get a league win.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc with a look at the small but growing Brazilian influence on MLS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division games this week(end):
Tue June 5
-Montreal 1-1 Minnesota
Thur June 7
-Charleston 1-2 Seattle
-Miami 2-2 Puerto Rico
-California 1-0 Vancouver
Fri June 8
-Carolina v Rochester
-Montreal v Portland - live at 7pm central on FSC.
Sat June 9
-Rochester v Portland
-Atlanta v Seattle
-Miami v Puerto Rico
-California v Minnesota
Sun June 10
-Vancouver v Minnesota
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL 1D Standings:
18 Vancouver
16 Rochester
16 Montreal
15 Seattle
13 Carolina
13 Miami
12 Charleston
11 Portland
11 Atlanta
11 Puerto Rico
6 Minnesota
5 California
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated goes on a massive personal tour of Mexican soccer. Fantastic story.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores - Semifinals second leg Scores & matches (with first leg scores included):
Wed June 6-
Santos 3-1 Gremio - the series ends tied 3-3 on aggregate, but the away goal sends Gremio to the finals.
-Match report from Sports Illustrated.
Thur June 7-
Boca Juniors 3-0 Cucuta - Boca Juniors win 4-3 on aggregate.
-Match report from Sports Illustrated.
-Finals schedule:
Wed Jun 13 - first leg
Boca Juniors v Gremio
Wed Jun 20 - second leg
Gremio v Boca Juniors
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-Spanish La Liga- The only Euro league race left to settle.
(2 left to play)
-Matches:
Real Madrid - Jun 9 at Zaragoza, Jun 17 v Mallorca
Barcelona - Jun 9 v Espanyol, Jun 17 at Gimnastic
Sevilla - Jun 9 at Mallorca, Jun 17 v Villareal
-Standings:
72 Real Madrid - leads on head to head record v Barca
72 Barcelona
70 Sevilla
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-Argentine Clausura- Going down to the wire?
(2 games to play)
-Matches:
San Lorenzo - Jun 10 v Arsenal de Sarandi (4th place), Jun 17 at Quilmes (20th place)
Boca Juniors - Jun 10 v Belgrano de Cordoba (19th place), Jun 17 at Lanus (6th place)
Estudiantes - Jun 10 v Argentinos Juniors (7th place), Jun 17 at Arsenal de Sarandi (4th place)
-Standings:
39 San Lorenzo
35 Boca Juniors
33 Estudiantes
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former star French defender Laurent Blanc is the new coach of Bordeaux.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at the effects the World Cup had on Germany, on the 1 year anniversary.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune says both Italy & France turned to some younger players for recent Euro qualifier success.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sweden have been handed a 0-3 forfeit victory over Denmark from last Saturday's match that ended prematurely, tied at 1-1. The referee had abandoned the game after a fan ran on the field and attacked the ref late in the match. 2 more people got on the field right after that leading to the referee's decision.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lastly, Real Madrid has signed a marketing deal with SCP Worldwide, to increase their visibility in the United States. SCP just happens to be run by Dave Checketts who also owns Real Salt Lake. The plan is to "create Real academies, secure broadcasting rights to the club's television content, and the team's participation in friendly's". Interesting.

15 Comments:

Blogger D said...

Brucio: Minor nitpick (because when you soar with eagles...)... the Sweden-Denmark match was 3-3 when it was halted by the referee.

4:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

d, the official forfeit score from UEFA is 3-0. http://www.uefa.com/competitions/euro/news/kind=1/newsid=548881.html

5:28 PM  
Blogger Trevor (F.L.Y.) said...

did taylor twellman join the yellow shoe club?

5:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do we have a link (maybe i missed it) to the tibetan/taiwainese flag debacle? I give a lot of money to Milarepa, and they'd be very interested in this...

6:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

rslfm.com

7:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.slcspin.com/?p=187

7:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brucio,

You wrote,
"Fans unfurled Tibetan & Taiwan flags at the RSL v China game last night in Salt Lake and were tossed out of the stadium for it! What is going on here? Don't we have freedom of speech anymore?"
--------
No, it's politically incorrect to criticize any nation other than USA, Israel, or England.

China may have slaughtered Tibetans, and threatened Taiwan with extermination, but we need to sweep it under the rug.
After all, if the U.N. says that China has done nothing wrong, then they've done nothing wrong.

12:55 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The defect here sign was pretty funny. But I think it would have been funnier if they could have some how incorporated the fact that thanks to China we may have to actually deal with our national debt.

Maybe something like, "China Americas loanshark" or "Don't worry China you know were good for it".

smatthew

8:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

smatthew nailed it.

Rather than focus on China's murderous regime which has slaughtered Tibetans and threatened to exterminate Taiwan, we should just focus on America's problem of the national debt.

As I stated earlier, it's simply politically incorrect to criticize China.
And smatthew proves my point.

12:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is also politically incorrect to make mention of US corporations enticing 3rd world nations into massive amounts of debt under the guise of "improving the lives of your people" while also directly or indirectly fomenting civil conflict (war) so we can have access to cheap sources of raw materials needed to live the lives we enjoy (Google "coltan Congo" if you need a recent history lesson).

So you can thank many innocent dead people for the cheap cell phone and laptop that allow you to read and post comments on soccer blogs. And remember, while it is politically correct to criticize the US government, US corporations are more than happy to let them take the heat while they quietly make their stockholders richer and richer.

< /end rant >

1:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You don't have freedom of speech in the stadium. Just like we can't put up racist signs you cant put up political ones. Even if you agree with the message being stated, you can't pick and choose which political and social commentary to edit. you just have to edit it all out of the stadium. After all sport is supposed to be above these things.

1:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Huh? When did I say we can't comment on China's human rights problems? If anything I'd say we should be screaming it out loud. And I say more power to those with the flags.

I just thought it'd be funny to make a banner inregards to the fact that China has heavily invested in our economy. So, much so that they own quite a bit of our national debt.

Heck, the whole thing reminds me of last years Baseball World Cup/classic or whatever it was. During a game in Puerto Rico inwhich Cuba was participating in a fan held up an anti-Castro sign. A Cuban official actually tried to physically take the sign away from the fan but was stopped by stadium security. A PR official was quoted as saying how in Puerto Rico they have something called freedom of speech.

On another note some Rapids fans were booted out this weekend too during a China/Rapids match.

sincerely,
smatthew
an anonymous poster who still signs his post

1:59 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:

"Just like we can't put up racist signs you cant put up political ones."

Who exactly is/are the "we" that you refer to?

4:06 PM  
Blogger Allen said...

Coltan causes bloodshed in COngo? Please, that's over the top garbage that sounds sexy but is far from the truth. China, Clinton and many, many others are far far far more to blame for the mess that Mobutu oversaw.


Anyway, shame on Real Salt Lake and the Colorado Rapids and the USSF for willing playing China in the first place. I'll bet South Africa was wishing they were as big and important as China so they could've got away with apartheid. For decades there was a HUGE fuss whenever they tried paying any sort of rugby internationally. These days there's barely a peep when it comes to China. So it goes.

8:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You have proven my point. Again, it's politically correct to bash the governments and politicians. But the big multinationals are untouchable. They love it when the governments and politicians get all of the blame.

No, coltan itself does not cause bloodshed. But those who exploit it and who have taken advantage of the political instability in the Congo and have raped its resources do.

Bruce, sorry to turn your blog into a political forum - this is my last post on the topic.

2:29 PM  

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