Farm Fresh Ibogaine News

The Chicago Fire are chasing hard after another aging Latino player, as Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune says Paulo Wanchope of Costa Rica is the latest target. Wanchope is expected in Chicago today.

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Toronto FC's English striker Danny Dichio on his impression of MLS so far: “It’s a very quick league, quite physical and it’s surprised me how good it is technically. I think there’s a misconception back home. Because football isn’t a top sport over here people assume it’s not taken as a serious game, but the majority of the guys in the league take the game really seriously.”


SuperLiga - MLS v FMF
Round 1 matches & scores:
FC Dallas v Chivas Guadalajara - Pizza Hut Park - Frisco TX - 8pm central
Match preview focusing on FCD keeper Dario Sala by Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News.
Los Angeles Galaxy v Pachuca - Home Depot Center - Carson CA - 10pm central
Match & SuperLiga preview with Beckham update by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match preview by Phil Collin of the Daily Breeze.
-FYI: There has been people wondering if LA forward Carlos Pavon was badly injured in the game v Chelsea, but manager Frank Yallop says he is ready to go tonight.
-Wed Jul 25
DC United v Monarcas Morelia - RFK Stadium - Washington DC - 7pm central
Houston Dynamo v Club America - Roberston Stadium - Houston TX- 9pm central
-Round 2 matches are Sat Jul 28 & Sun Jul 29.
-Round 3 matches are Tue Jul 31 & Wed Aug 1.
-Semifinals Tue Aug 14 & Wed Aug 15.
-Final Wed Aug 29.
Group A:
-Chivas Guadalajara
-Los Angeles Galaxy
-FC Dallas
-Pachuca
Group B:
-Club America
-DC United
-Houston Dynamo
-Morelia Monarcas
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with an article on what MLS hopes SuperLiga can do to garner more fans for the league.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet previews the SuperLiga.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram previews SuperLiga.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle previews SuperLiga too.
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Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise with his SuperLiga preview.
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MLS
Matches & scores this week:
-Thu Jul 26
New York v Chivas USA - 6pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Jul 28
Salt Lake v New England - 8:30pm central on FSC & FSE
-Sun Jul 29
Toronto v Chicago - 2pm central on TeleFutura & CBC
Kansas City v Chivas USA - 6pm central on Direct Kick
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Guillermo Barros Schelotto of the Columbus Crew has been named MLS Player Of The Week.
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The excellent Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune does an online Q & A session with readers. Good stuff here.
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Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News is not pleased with MLS's massive promotion this past weekend of Beckham while almost completely ignoring other big events like the New England v Houston match, not to mention the Blanco debut.
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In another article Biglin says the Revolution are not pleased with their home record so far this season.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated sings a similar tune to that of Biglin, but does it with less bitterness.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says Temoc Blanco is the guy who put on the real show this past weekend. I agree. (article contains several other world soccer notes too)
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Chicago is looking for forward Chris Rolfe to make his return from a long layoff due to an ankle injury on August 4 at home v Columbus.
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald likes the arrival of Blanco.
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George Tanner at FC Rocky with his increasingly excellent Colorado Rapids notes.
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Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News says she thinks the LA Galaxy are on the right track, and their real fans "get it".
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Dallas General Manager Michael Hitchcock writes to FCD fans on the teams blog to review the first half the season and fill them in on the coming months ahead, including this weeks SuperLiga launch.
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I missed this one last week - The US Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with Dallas midfielder Arturo Alvarez.
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Big Soccer poster "guamster" links to a video clip of Drew Carey on the David Letterman show last night pimping soccer.
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Bill Livingston of the Cleveland Plain Dealer talks to Drew Carey about his soccer passion. Carey would love to be an owner in a Cleveland MLS team.
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Grant Wahl at Sports Illustrated chimes in with his thoughts on the Beckham debut.
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Richard Deitsch of SI focuses on ESPN's way over the top coverage of Beckham. Which I found almost unbearable, but I made it.
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ESPN's Page 2 with a look at the Beckhamania in LA.
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Sage Paul Gardner of the New York Sun with his take on the Beckham debut.
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John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle wonders if the growing popularity of the Dynamo and MLS with Beckham will have a negative effect on his cities struggling Astros baseball team.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with his weekly soccer notes starting with the end of the Dynamo's 700+ minute defensive goalless streak.
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Yesterday I said that Dynamo midfielder Brian Mullan was out because of a concussion, but it is actually a broken facial bone that is keeping him out. No word on how long he will be out.
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Reports say that DC United President Kevin Payne was in Argentina yesterday to meet with long time midfield great Juan Sebastian Veron about coming to MLS.
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Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch on the suddenly hot property named Danny Szetela who lit up the U20 World Cup and is finally starting to have an impact on the field for his club in Columbus too. The list of European clubs chasing Szetela is impressively long, but he wants to stay in MLS if he can reach a new deal.
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Metrofanatic is reporting that New York Red Bulls midfielder Dave Van Den Bergh got his green card, meaning his is no longer listed on the team roster as an International player and does not count against their limit of 4.
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Pete Gratoff of the KC Star with an article on Kansas City's plans to find a jersey sponsor.
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The San Francisco Chronicle with an article from Sunday that makes sure we all know the new San Jose Earthquakes are not the old SJE returned home, but rather a crappy expansion team. OK.
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In 2 stadium notes:
-First, DC has hit a wall in the proposed stadium along the river and might have to look to the suburbs for a home.
-And secondly, Red Bull is negotiating to buy out AEG's share of Red Bull Park, which is what has caused the building delays, not industrial waste as previously reported.
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The Arizona Republic looks at the poor fan turnout for a series of friendly's last weekend in the Phoenix area, and what that means to a possible bid for a MLS team in the city.
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MLS International Friendly's
Scores this week:
Tue Jul 24
Real Salt Lake v Boca Juniors
Wed Jul 25
Chicago v Santos Laguna in La Joya TX
Toronto v Aston Villa
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The Birmingham Express & Star talks to Toronto's Danny Dichio prior to the TFC friendly with Aston Villa.
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The Celtic website has several stories and a lot of good pictures from their trip to the USA last week. Coverage from both matches they played too (MLS All Star game and Chicago Fire game.)
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Everton are training all this week in LA at the Home Depot Center.
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The St Paul Pioneer Press with more on the Tony Sanneh loan to the Minnesota Thunder.
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John Haydon of the Washington Times checks in on USA & Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann who is recovering from offseason surgery on a badly broken hand.
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Haydon also talks to Reading manager Steve Coppell about the quality of American players.
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And a rumor in England today says defender Oguchi Onyewu could be joining his 2 fellow American's at Reading.
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American Soccer Daily talks to American Ian Joy about life in Germany at his club St Pauli!
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Asian Cup
-Semifinals - Wed Jul 25:
Iraq v South Korea
Japan v Saudi Arabia
-Final match Sun Jul 29:
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about the stunning run to the Asian Cup semifinals by Iraq.
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The New York Times with a story on what the success of the soccer team is having on the people of Iraq.
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German preseason Liga Pokal
See the games on GolTV.
Semifinals:
-Tue Jul 24
Nurmberg v Schalke
-Wed Jul 25
Bayern Munich v Stuttgart
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The word from England has Man City signing young Mexican star Nery Castillo from Olympiakos.
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The Guardian with an article on the resignation of Newcastle chairman Freddy Sheppard. I think a lot of die hard fans might be pretty excited by this event.
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The Guardian also talk to Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and claim that he is mellowing out.
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Norman Hubbard at Soccernet is not impressed with the way Fulham's new management spent money in the offseason.
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at race & football & the World Cup in South Africa today.