Gay Rodeo Backstage Luncheon Menu News

I think we are gonna skip most of the David Beckham hoopla today (well OK there will be a little, how can you avoid it). I wouldn't even know where to begin. Turn on your local news, they will have footage, guaranteed.


Copa America:
The Final:
Sun Jul 15
Brazil v Argentina - live at 4:00 central on GolTV & Univision.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune previews the Copa final showdown.
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MLS
Matches & scores this week:
-Thu Jul 12
Chicago 0-4 Houston - goals by Stuart Holden, Nate Jaqua, Joseph Ngwenya & Chris Wondolowski.
Match report from MLSnet.
Match report by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match report by Nick Firchau of Chicago's Daily Southtown.
Match report from the Houston Chronicle.
Match report (barely) & update on the sale of the team by Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times.
Post-game notes by Arroyave on his Red Card blog.
Post-game notes from the Houston Chronicle.
-Sat Jul 14
DC v Dallas - 6:30 central on Direct Kick
New York v New England - 6:30 central on FSC & FSE
Kansas City v Salt Lake - 7:00 central on Direct Kick
Chivas USA v Columbus - 9:30 central on HDNet
-Sun Jul 15
Houston v Toronto - 7:30 central on Direct Kick
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The 2nd goal of last nights game was an amazing piece of work by Houston's Joseph Ngwenya. First he and Jaqua play outstanding defense to win the ball (some of which is not shown in this clip), the Jaqua passes to Ngwenya who does the rest. I don't know if I have ever seen a goal from this tight of an angle. Amazing. See it here.
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Houston's defense is now on a 605 minute goalless streak. That is impressive. The league record is 681 minutes, set in 2000 by the MLS Cup champs from Kansas City.
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The Chicago Fire has announced the opening of the Chicago Fire Soccer Academy.
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Kevin McGeehan at the US Soccer Players Assoc wonders why someone would buy the Chicago Fire without control of the stadium (which the city of Bridgeview owns).
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Bob Luder of the KC Star says the Wizards have a shot to make a move up the standings with 3 straight home games on the docket.
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Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily Herald with a story on New England defender Michael Parkhurst, his trip to the Gold Cup, and attitude upon returning to the club.
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Michael Lewis & Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer hand out their mid-season New York Red Bulls report card.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail says its not known yet if TFC striker Jeff Cunningham will be recovered enough from a groin strain to play against Houston on Sunday.
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John Lopez of the Houston Chronicle says MLS is about to go to a new level.
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Of course my pal Paul Demko of the City Pages puts the Beckham headline best: "David Beckham urinates on U.S. soil"
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Rob Stone rang some truth into the sale of new LA Galaxy shirts last night on the MLS broadcast. It was reported yesterday that the team had sold 250,000 new shirts already. Which I scoffed at. Stone said the team had some $250,000 dollars worth of shirts so far. Which at $80 a pop comes out to a little over 3000 shirts. Now this is still an amazing number for MLS, but a lot more realistic.
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Dan Steinberg of the awesome Sports Bog from the Washington Post was on hand in LA and gives us the straight dope. Wow! What a scene he describes!
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Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated looks at the Latino response to Beckham.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to Clive Toye, the man who brought Pele to America, about Beckham.
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Everything else you need to know about Beckham today can be found at Andrea & Luis's Sideline Views blog.
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US Open Cup
Third Round matches:
-Mon Jul 9
FC Dallas 1-1 Atlanta Silverbacks - FCD win 4-3 on PK's.
-Tue Jul 10
Rochester Raging Rhinos 2-4 New England Revolution
Richmond Kickers 1-0 Los Angeles Galaxy
Charleston Battery 1-0 Houston Dynamo
Colorado Rapids 3-1 California Victory
-Wed Jul 11
Harrisburg City Islanders 1-0 DC United
-Sun Jul 15
Carolina Railhawks v Chicago Fire
-Wed Jul 18
Seattle Sounders v CD Chivas USA
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USL First Division
Matches & scores this week:
-Thu Jul 12
Seattle 1-0 Vancouver
-Fri Jul 13
Carolina v Montreal
Puerto Rico v Charleston
Portland v California
-Sat Jul 14
Atlanta v Rochester
Vancouver v Miami
-Sun Jul 15
Puerto Rico v Charleston
Minnesota v Montreal
Portland v California
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USL 1D Standings:
28 Seattle
27 Vancouver
27 Rochester
24 Portland
24 Montreal
22 Atlanta
20 Charleston
19 Carolina
17 Miami
16 Puerto Rico
11 Minnesota
11 California
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Jesse Erdmann at Blue Sky Soccer with this weeks USL First Division Power Rankings.
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DaMarcus Beasley will get his first chance on the field in a Rangers shirt tonight. They play a friendly v Gutersloh of the German 4th division.
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U20 World Cup
Knock out matches - Round of 16:
-Wed Jul 11
USA 2-1 Uruguay
Austria 2-1 Gambia
Spain 4-2 Brazil
Japan 2-2 Czech Republic - CR win 4-3 on Penalty Kicks after Extra Time.
-Thu Jul 12
Chile 1-0 Portugal
Zambia 1-2 Nigeria
Argentina 3-1 Poland
Mexico 3-0 Congo
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So the Quarterfinals lineup like this:
Sat Jul 14
Austria v USA - see it live at 1:15pm central time on ESPNU & TeleFutura.
Spain v Czech Republic
Sun Jul 15
Chile v Nigeria
Argentina v Mexico
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Fifa.com says the USA are fine with winning ugly if they have to.
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USA U20 team blog.
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Official FIFA U20 World Cup site.
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Asian Cup
Group stage matches:
-Sat Jul 7
Thailand 1-1 Iraq
-Sun Jul 8
Australia 1-1 Oman
Vietnam 2-0 UAE
-Mon Jul 9
Japan 1-1 Qatar
-Tue Jul 10
Indonesia 2-1 Bahrain
Malaysia 1-5 China
-Wed Jul 11
Iran 2-1 Uzbekistan
S Korea v Saudi Arabia
-Thu Jul 12
Oman 0-2 Thailand
Qatar 1-1 Vietnam
-Fri Jul 13
Iraq 3-1 Australia
UAE 0-3 Japan
-Sat Jul 14
Uzbekistan v Malaysia
Saudi Arabia v Indonesia
-Sun Jul 15
China v Iran
Bahrain v S Korea
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WooooHooooo, Australia are on the canvas & the referee is counting to 10 as we speak (currently at 7). They drew their first Asian Cup match, and today lost 3-1 to Iraq, leaving them on the brink of elimination.
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The Guardian with a story on the native people of way northern Norway and other parts of extreme Scandinavia. They are the Sami. And they have their own football tournament - The Sami Cup.
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John Haydon of the Washington Times with a look at the world wide scouting reach of Bolton Wanderers. A pretty small club in a small town and yet some say they are the most universal team of them all.
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Chelsea has been training in Los Angeles for the past week. The teams own website is probably the best place for casual fans to check it out. They kick off the EPL season on August 12 at home to just promoted Birmingham.
-They also have three friendly's scheduled:
Sat Jul 14 v Club America
Tue Jul 17 v Samsung Bluewings
Sat Jul 21 v Los Angeles Galaxy
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Simon Kuper at the Financial Times writes about Brazil & (now) Chelsea's big rugged defender Alex.
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The Guardian with a story on an arrest warrant being issued in Brazil for the agent of Carlos Tevez on money laundering charges. His name is Kai Joorcbchian, the same man who tried to buy West Ham last year, and is at the heart of the current Tevez contract mess. The money laundering is said to done through Brazilian futebol club Corinthians. To make it all even weirder, this scandal also includes the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who may be the money behind Joorabchian. Berezovsky was also involved last year with the former Soviet spy that was assassinated in London with enriched plutonium. I love international intrigue.
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FIFA has said they will announce the host of the 2014 World Cup on October 29 or 30. It is expected to be Brazil.
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The Times of London with Lionel Messi's Top 5 goals. Brilliant stuff.