Trouble Ahead Trouble Behind News

ADDITION: Ives Galarcep at Soccer By Ives is reporting that Danny Szetela has been sold by Columbus to Racing Santander in La Liga. La Yeeeeeeeeeees! Go Danny Go!


MLS
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Salt Lake 3-1 Kansas City - RSL goals by Mathias Mantilla, Fabian Espindola & Andy Williams. KC goal by Eddie Johnson.
-Sat Sep 1
New York v Chicago - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Dallas v DC - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Houston v Kansas City - 7:30pm central on FSC & FSE
Los Angeles v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Sep 2
Columbus v Colorado - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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You could call LA v RSL the Toilet Bowl.
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DC United goalkeeper Troy Perkins has been named MLS Player Of The Month for August.
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Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer talks to New York's keeper Jon Conway about last weekends horrible own goal.
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Grahame Jones & Jaime Cardenas of the Los Angeles Times report on the Beckman injury and how he is probably done for the season.
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Christine Daniels of the LA Times gives AEG & Co. an earful.
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Filip Bondy who writes regularly for the New York Daily News has an article for MSNBC saying that MLS could be in big trouble with the thousands of fans who bought tickets to see Beckman play. All clubs so far have said, "No refunds".
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3rd Degree is reporting that new Dallas signing Denilson has his work visa in hand and will be available to play this weekend. Don't miss it.
-Space for Denilson on the FCD was created by placing midfielder Marcelo Saragosa on the Season Ending Injury List. Which means that even if Saragosa heals he will not be able to play this season.
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One of Kansas City's owners Robb Hieneman has posted a note on Big Soccer updating fans one year after they bought the team from the Hunt family.
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Dema Kovalenko may be ready to play for New York this weekend. He has missed almost 3 weeks since a car accident.
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John Meyer of the Denver Post with an article on Herculez Gomez who has lost his spot in the Colorado starting 11. This is no surprise to those of us who didn't think he was good enough in the first place. The reason he was starting in Colorado is because they were terrible. Their other former starting striker Roberto Brown was cut from the team all-together. What does that tell you?
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Goal.com has a Q & A with Herculez.
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Columbus Crew defender Chad Marshall is going to be forced to sit out the rest of this season after suffering his 3rd concussion of the year. This is really sad. I have always liked him as a defender, and even though he has not had a great MLS career so far, I still think he has the skills to be a great one.
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Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet highlights the top 5 stories of MLS right now, not named B******.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer365 talks to Landon Donovan (mainly) & Joe Cannon (a little) about the state of Planet Galaxy today.
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James Edward of the Deseret Morning News writes about the up and down and around first season for RSL forward Robbie Findley.
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Andrea Canales at the US Soccer Players Assoc gives her post-tournament analysis of SuperLiga.
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Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated counters with his own SuperLiga analysis.
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USL First Division
Matches & Scores:
-Thur Aug 30
Vancouver v Minnesota
-Fri Aug 31
Montreal v Rochester
Seattle v Minnesota
-Sat Sep 1
Carolina v Portland
Atlanta v Puerto Rico
-Sun Sep 2
Miami v Charleston
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Jesse Erdmann of Blue Sky Soccer with this weeks First Division Power Rankings.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post writes about the number of top quality soccer players leaving college early to turn pro.
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U17 World Cup from South Korea.
Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Sat Sep 1
France v Spain
Ghana v Peru
-Sun Sep 2
Argentina v Nigeria
England v Germany
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The Daily Mail of England talks to USA & Reading midfielder Bobby Convey about this second season in the Premiership, the added pressure to succeed, and the new found attention. (thanks to BQ for this one)
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Two of the top teams in the current Mexican Appertura clash on Saturday:
Pachuca v San Luis
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Honduran midfielder Wilson Palacios has been loaned by his home club Olimpia to Birmingham. Great move for him.
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UEFA Champions League
3rd Qualifying Round matches - Second leg matches (first leg scores included)
-Mon Sep 3
AEK Athens v Sevilla (0-2)
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UEFA Super Cup
-The game that has become a tribute to Antonio Puerta, today:
Sevilla v Milan - in Monaca
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Looking ahead - Champions League Match Day 1 is Sep 18 & 19!
-Freddy Adu - Benfina at Milan - Sep 18
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers v Stuttgart - Sep 19
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Several Americans are involved in the UEFA Cup - next round is Sep 20.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen v Helsingborg (Sweden)
-Danny Callif - Aalborg at Sampdoria
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby v Braga
-Gabe Ferarri - Sampdoria v Aalborg
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn at Larisa (Greece)
-Tim Howard - Everton v Metalist Kharkiv (Ukraine)
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard at Zenit St Petersburg
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Big Euro matches this weekend to follow:
-Sat Sep 1
Manchester United v Sunderland - the return of Roy Keane to Old Trafford to take on his old master.
Bordeaux v Monaco - #4 hosts #2 looking for early supremacy.
-Sun Sep 2
Villarreal v Real Madrid - last weeks surprise big winners were Villa, lets see what they can do this week.
Paris St Germain v Marseille - always bad blood.
-Mon Sep 3
Milan v Fiorentina - old rivals battle.
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Torino has signed Uruguayan forward Alvaro Recoba on loan from Inter.
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Atletico Madrid signed Brazilian defensive midfielder Thiago Motta from Barcelona.

Achieve Top Speed News

If you didn't see the RSL v KC match or the SuperLiga finale last night, then you missed out on two pretty fantastic matches. The quality of the goals in the RSL-KC game was outstanding (especially Andy Williams 50 yard bomb). And the energy, passion & all-out attack between LA & Pachuca was almost too much to take. Wow, what a finish. Fantastic night to be a soccer fan in America.

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Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated writing after the SuperLiga final: (LA keeper Joe) Cannon would call it the most devastating loss he has ever suffered as a professional.

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In watching the video tour of El Pescadito's house (linked to yesterday) I noticed he had a copy of Mike Judges latest movie Idiocracy! Hooray Fish. We also learn that he loves Homer Simpson. Hooray Beer.

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This Is American Soccer, the amazing blog from Adam Spangler is 2 years old today! Happy B-day amigo!


SuperLiga Campeon Pachuca!!
Los Angeles Galaxy 1-1 Pachuca Tuzos - Los Tuzos win it 5-4 on Penalty Kicks. LA goal by Chris Klein. Pach goal by Peter Vagenas(Own Goal).
Video Highlights - sadly these highlights are massively lacking in showing the energy, wild chances and great saves that occurred in this match.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report by Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Pre-In-Post-game notes from Luis & Andrea at Sideline Views.
Post-game press conference audio recorded by Bueno of LA coach Frank Yallop. The coach gets pretty worked up here. I have never heard him like this. Wow. Also from Sideline Views.
Post-game analysis by Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated.
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My notes from the SuperLiga final:
-What a game, what a game!
-Pachuca owned the first half. And LA owned the second half. Although both teams had several excellent goal scoring chances in each half.
-Honestly this game was there for both teams to take many times over in regulation. I don't know the last time I saw so many close calls!
-If LA didn't have so many crappy players on the field they could have won the thing. But when you are handicapped with Peter Vagenas, Alan Gordon (feet of concrete) and Chris Klein you are in trouble.
-Now I have just ripped Klein, but his Chilena to tie the match in 2nd half stoppage time was INSANE! Wow.
-LD took a terrible Penalty Kick that was justly saved by Calero.
-Abel Xavier couldn't even put his PK on frame. Game over.
-Congrats to Pachuca! They have won everything they could in the last 12 months. Now let's hope they do us proud at Club World Championship in December.
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They say Beckman sprained his knee and could be out 4-6 weeks. Here is what DB said: "Maybe it's time for me to just say, 'I need the rest,' and get it right and don't come back until its right."
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Christine Daniels of the LA Times shows how last nights game is the Galaxy's season in a microcosm. It’s not a very pleasant article. I think Daniels is one of those people who kinda likes soccer, but thinks the American game is vastly inferior and will never great, so why not slag it off. I think she secretly loves it even more anytime something goes wrong in the game here in America. It makes her giddy, she can scream "SEE, SEE, I TOLD YOU SO!". Then her hands sweat until she can sit down at the keyboard and slice the game apart. The she throws her head back and laughs with sweet release.
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MLS
Matches & scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Salt Lake 3-1 Kansas City - RSL goals by Mathias Mantilla, Fabian Espindola & Andy Williams. KC goal by Eddie Johnson.
Video Highlights.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from the Kansas City Star.
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
-Sat Sep 1
New York v Chicago - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Dallas v DC - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Houston v Kansas City - 7:30pm central on FSC & FSE
Los Angeles v Salt Lake - 9:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Sep 2
Columbus v Colorado - 2pm central on TeleFutura
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Post-game articles from the Deseret Mornings News on the impact of Andy Williams and Mathias Mantilla at Real Salt Lake.
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Goal.com has a Q & A with Houston defender Craig Waibel.
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Toronto has transferred midfielder Andy Welsh to Blackpool in the English Championship division. Adios dude. We hardly knew ya. But you didn't look to good, so better luck at the next stop.
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Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News says Juan Toja is back to training with FC Dallas. And a few other FCD notes.
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Beau Dure of USA Today writes about the final stretch runs in the careers of Eddie Pope and Cobi Jones. Two MLS originals in their last seasons and not likely to be seen in the playoffs.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle sings the praises of local Houstonian & KC Wiz midfielder Davy Arnaud. Davis calls him "elite". I can't do that, cuz he has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many chances on goal that he does not finish. He could be deadly, instead he is merely pesky.
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The Hunt Park Insider talks to Columbus Crew midfielder Duncan Oughton who goes down his teams roster and fills us in on "the new guys". Pretty funny stuff.
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Bill Urban of the US Soccer Players Assoc writes about one of the most improved players in all of MLS this season - Dallas defender Clarence Goodson.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune talks to former Fire and now Colorado defender Tony Sanneh who unloads a lot of angst on his old team.
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Martin Rogers (who looks 15 in his photo) gets soccer-hate mail from NFL fans. Yes those people who are so damn dumb that they don't even know their sport stole the and from a completely different game that the whole world plays. Viewer Mail time.
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PR Newswire with facts and figures on traffic for MLSnet.com.
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USL First Division
Matches & Scores:
-Thur Aug 30
Vancouver v Minnesota
-Fri Aug 31
Montreal v Rochester
Seattle v Minnesota
-Sat Sep 1
Carolina v Portland
Atlanta v Puerto Rico
-Sun Sep 2
Miami v Charleston
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Lars Lifrak of Soccer365 did a Q & A with Seattle's Danny Jackson about the US Open Cup semifinals next Tuesday v Dallas.
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Freddy Adu was on the bench for Benfica yesterday, but did not play in their Champions League match that saw them advance to the group stage where they will play 6 games between September and December.
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Yanks Abroad has some words from Adu.
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USA & Watford defender Jay DeMerit writing for Soccernet takes us a back a couple of months and gives us his perspective on winning the Gold Cup.
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FIFA.com with an article on our DaMarcus Beasley. (somehow missed it last week)
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The latest news from Fulham on Brian McBride’s knee-cap surgery. The doctor they mention is Burt Mandelbaum.
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U17 World Cup from South Korea.
The USA is out.
USA 1-2 Germany - Ger goals both by Richard Sukuta-Pasu. USA goal by Mykell Bates.
Match report from US Soccer.
Match report from FIFA.
Post-game quotes from USA coaches & players.
Post-game & post-tournament analysis by Ken Pendleton of the US Soccer Players Assoc.
-USA U17 blog.
Knock Out Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Tunisia 1-3 France
Spain 3-0 North Korea
Peru 1-1 Tajikistan - Peru advance 5-4 on PK's
Ghana 1-0 Brazil
-Thu Aug 30
Argentina 2-0 Costa Rica
Nigeria 2-1 Colombia
USA 1-2 Germany
England 3-1 Syria
-Quarterfinal schedule:
-Sat Sep 1
France v Spain
Ghana v Peru
-Sun Sep 2
Argentina v Nigeria
England v Germany
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Andrew Rogers of Soccer365 looks at the USA Youth Development system now that the U17's have been eliminated from the World Cup.
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UEFA Champions League
3rd Qualifying Round matches - Second leg matches (first leg scores included)
-Tue Aug 28
Dinamo Bucuresti 1-3 Lazio - Lazio advance 4-2 on aggregate.
Liverpool 4-0 Toulouse - Liverpeople advance 5-0 on agg.
Crvena Zvezda 0-0 Rangers - Rangers advance 1-0 on agg.
-Wed Aug 29
Elfsborg 1-2 Valencia (0-3) - Valencia advance 5-1 on aggregate.
Kobenhavn 0-1 Benfica (1-2) - Benfica adv 3-1 on agg.
Besiktas 2-0 Zurich (1-1) - Beskitas adv 3-1 on agg.
Steaua Bucuresti 2-0 BATE Borisov (2-2) - Steaua adv 4-2 on agg.
Rosenborg 2-0 Tampere United (3-0) - Rosen adv 5-0 on agg.
Celtic 1-1 Spartak Moskva (1-1) - tied 2-2 on agg, Celtic adv 4-3 on PK's.
Dinamo Zagreb 2-3 Werder Bremen (1-2) - Werder adv 5-3 on agg.
Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1 Salzburg (0-1) - Shakhtar adv 3-2 on agg.
Slavia Praha 2-1 Ajax (1-0) - Salvia adv 3-1 on agg.
Dynamo Kyiv 3-0 Sarajevo (1-0) - Dynamo adv 4-0 on agg.
Anderlecht 0-2 Fenerbahce (0-1) - Fenerbahce adv 3-0 on agg.
Arsenal 3-0 Sparta Praha (2-0) - Arse adv 5-0 on agg.
-Mon Sep 3
AEK Athens v Sevilla (0-2)
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2007-08 UEFA Champions League Group Stage draw:
-Group A
Liverpool
Porto
Marseille
Besiktas
-Group B
Chelsea
Valencia
Schalke
Rosenborg
-Group C
Real Madrid
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiacos
-Group D
Milan
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk
-Group E
Barcelona
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers
-Group F
Manchester United
Roma
Sporting Portugal
Dynamo Kyiv
-Group G
Inter
PSV
CSKA Moskva
Fenerbahce
-Group H
Arsenal
Sevilla/AEK winner
Steaua Bucuresti
Slavia Praha
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The guys behind the counter at the Fenerbahce Mart in St Paul must be ecstatic that their team has advanced to the CL Group Stage.
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England's Carling League Cup
2nd round Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 28
Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Doncaster
Southend 2-0 Watford
Nottingham Forest v Leicester - game postponed
Wigan 0-1 Hull
Birmingham 2-1 Hereford
Carlisle 0-2 Coventry
Bristol Rovers 1-2 West Ham
Derby County 2-2 Blackpool - Derby win 7-6 on PK's
Rochdale 1-1 Norwich City - Norwich win 4-3 on PK's
Portsmouth 3-0 Leeds
Cardiff 1-0 Leyton Orient
MK Dons 2-3 Sheffield Utd
Burnley 3-0 Oldham
Swansea 0-1 Reading
Peterborough 0-2 West Brom
Shrewsbury 0-1 Fulham
Wolves 1-3 Morecambe
Sheffield Wed 2-1 Hartlepool
Luton 3-0 Sunderland
Wrexham 0-5 Aston Villa
Charlton 4-3 Stockport
-Wed Aug 29
Middlesbrough 2-0 Northampton
Newcastle 2-0 Barnsley
Bristol City 1-2 Manchester City
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Coppa Italia
3rd round Matches & Scores:
Ascoli 2-1 Atalanta
Cagliari 2-1 Siena
Napolis 1-1 Livorno - Napoli advance 4-3 on PK's.
Parma 1-3 Juventus
Reggina 3-2 Piacenza
Torino 3-2 Rimini
Triestina 0-0 Catania - Catania adv 4-2 on PK's.
Udinese 3-0 Bari
-These winners will meet up with other teams who have already been slotted into the next round: Roma, Sampdoria, Palermo, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, Empoli & Inter.
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One time highly sought after Dutch forward Patrick Kluivert has signed with Lille. He was with PSV last season.
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Cameroon & Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o has torn a tendon in his thigh and will miss about 2 months. Wow. What a drag. I love the Eto'o!
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Former Arsenal board member David Dein, who was kicked off the board after being seen to be helping Colorado Rapids owner Stan Kroenke buy the team, is now connected to an Iranian/Russian companies desire to buy the team. This may spur on Kroenke to make a serious move.
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Sevilla has signed Ivory Coast striker Arouna Kone from PSV.
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Tonight's UEFA SuperCup match between AC Milan and Sevilla with be a tribute to Antonio Puerta.
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I hate when I have to write this kinda thing, but another players has died on the training field. It so damn sad. Chaswe Nsofwa of Zambia collapsed during training with Hapoel Beersheva in Israel. Cause of death is not yet known.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reflects on soccer player deaths on the field of play.

Hot Spaghetti Eating News

Earlier this week the founder of MLS Alan Rothenberg was inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame. He was completely overshadowed by arguably the two biggest names in the history of the game in our country - Mia Hamm & Julie Foudy. Billy Smith who played for the New York Cosmos was all inducted.


Don't forget - Today!
SuperLiga
-Final - Wed Aug 29
Los Angeles Galaxy v Pachuca Tuzos - at the Home Depot Center time TBD.
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Landon Donovan is expected to play for LA tonight. The word on that other guy is unknown.
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LA midfielder Kelly Gray writes a column for Goal.com before tonight’s game. Very cool.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet says Pachuca is heavily favored tonight. I will agree with that 100%.
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Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze previews tonight’s game.
-Witz also writes about the Klinsmann rumors, Beckham's health and other LA insanity (inanity?).
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times previews.
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Luis Bueno of The Press Enterprise previews too.
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MLS
Matches & scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Salt Lake v Kansas City - 8pm central on Direct Kick
-KC midfielder Davy Arnaud will miss this game due to Yellow Card accumulation suspension.
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James Edward of the Deseret Morning News previews tonight’s RSL game.
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The Salt Lake Tribune with an article on one of Real Salt Lake's few shining moments - goalkeeper Nick Rimando.
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Bob Luder of the KC Star with a fine article on Wizards striker Scott Sealy who has finally returned from a long injury layoff, and a preview of tonight's game.
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Steven Goff on his Soccer Insider blog has a concise interview with DC defender Bobby Boswell who has not been seeing the field as of late.
-Here's Goff's usual excellent notes on DC United. No one else even remotely covers a team as good as Goff does.
-And some other more general soccer notes from Goff.
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MetroFanatic with a great article on the latest goalkeeper saga in New York. What's happening this year? Of Cabbages And Keepers.
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Chivas USA defender Alex Zotinca got an additional 3 game suspension for a head butt he delivered to LA's Kevin Harmse last week in a mass scramble of players after a hard tackle. But Harmes started the attack with a punch to Zotinca's midsection - and Harmes only got the 1 game suspension from the Red Card, but no more. WTF??
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Jeff Bradley at MLSnet with his First XI: Welcome to MLS Denilson.
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FC Dallas Updates gives us the video tour of El Pescadito's house! Hell yes.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says LA needs Klinsi.
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BigSoccer posters scoop the Philadelphia journalists on news about MLS & stadium building in Philly. Not surprising. From the Philadelphia Daily News.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to San Jose owner Lew Wolff about his new team for next year. Plus other MLS & soccer notes.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports on the pluses & minuses when attempting to lure a Designated Player to Colorado.
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Another non-soccer writer, this one from the Daily Breeze uses many many words to tell the public that the Galaxy stink.
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Gary Singh of Metro Active does his best to de-bunk all those American arguments against soccer. He is pretty good at it too.
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The University Daily Kansan pimps New York's 17 year old forward Jozy Altidore as the successor to Brian McBride for Team USA.
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Mike Biglin of MetroWest Daily News writes about Duke forward Michael Videria who is one of the best college to pro prospects for this upcoming season.
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U17 World Cup from South Korea.
-All games on ESPNU.
-USA U17 blog.
Knock Out Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Tunisia v France
Spain v North Korea
Peru v Tajikistan
Ghana v Brazil
-Thu Aug 30
Argentina v Costa Rica
Nigeria v Colombia
USA v Germany - 5:45am central on ESPNU
England v Syria
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USA & Rangers midfielder DaMarcus Beasley came on in the 78th minute to help hold the lead in the Champions League yesterday. The game ended 0-0 with Rangers moving on 1-0 on aggregate.
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Former Argentine World Cup winning coach Cesar Luis Menotti has been named the new coach at UAG Tecos in Mexico.
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The Toronto Star has an interview with just-resigned Canadian Soccer Pres. Colin Linford who really rips into the Association. He really let's them have it.
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UEFA Champions League
Third Qualifying Round matches - Second leg matches (first leg scores included)
-Tue Aug 28
Dinamo Bucuresti 1-3 Lazio - Lazio advance 4-2 on aggregate.
Liverpool 4-0 Toulouse - Liverpeople advance 5-0 on agg.
Crvena Zvezda 0-0 Rangers - Rangers advance 1-0 on agg.
-Wed Aug 29
Elfsborg v Valencia (0-3)
Kobenhavn v Benfica (1-2)
Besiktas v Zurich (1-1)
Steaua Bucuresti v BATE Borisov (2-2)
Rosenborg v Tampere United (3-0)
Celtic v Spartak Moskva (1-1)
Dinamo Zagreb v Werder Bremen (1-2)
Shakhtar Donetsk v Salzburg (0-1)
Slavia Praha v Ajax (1-0)
Dynamo Kyiv v Sarajevo (1-0)
Anderlecht v Fenerbahce (0-1)
Arsenal v Sparta Praha (2-0)
-Mon Sep 3
AEK Athens v Sevilla (0-2)
-Lazio, Liverpool & Rangers have advanced so far. 12 more will advance today, with the final team advancing next Monday.
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England's Carling Cup 2nd round
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 28
Plymouth Argyle 2-0 Doncaster
Southend 2-0 Watford
Nottingham Forest v Leicester - game postponed
Wigan 0-1 Hull
Birmingham 2-1 Hereford
Carlisle 0-2 Coventry
Bristol Rovers 1-2 West Ham
Derby County 2-2 Blackpool - Derby win 7-6 on PK's
Rochdale 1-1 Norwich City - Norwich win 4-3 on PK's
Portsmouth 3-0 Leeds
Cardiff 1-0 Leyton Orient
MK Dons 2-3 Sheffield Utd
Burnley 3-0 Oldham
Swansea 0-1 Reading
Peterborough 0-2 West Brom
Shrewsbury 0-1 Fulham
Wolves 1-3 Morecambe
Sheffield Wed 2-1 Hartlepool
Luton 3-0 Sunderland
Wrexham 0-5 Aston Villa
Charlton 4-3 Stockport
-Wed Aug 29
Middlesbrough v Northampton
Newcastle v Barnsley
Bristol City v Manchester City
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Several Americans saw their teams take part in that League Cup action:
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - played the whole match -Bobby Convey - Reading - started and played 100 minutes of match that went 120. -Jay DeMerit - Watford - did not dress
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - played the whole match
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress but his work visa has finally been completed so he should be set to play now. -Cory Gibbs - Charlton - did not dress, still out due to long term knee injury, but back at training now.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - did not dress -Kasey Keller - Fulham - did not dress
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - did not dress -Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - played the full 90 in defense. -Jonathan Spector - West Ham - did not dress
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Coppa Italia
-3rd round Matches & Scores:
Ascoli v Atalanta
Cagliari v Siena
Napolis v Livorno
Parma v Juventus
Reggina v Piacenza
Torino v Rimini
Triestina v Catania
Udinese v Bari
-These winners will meet up with other teams who have already been slotted into the next round.
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They brought it to a boil, and a little spilled over, but it did not explode - Anderlecht v Fenerbahce in the Champions League - the fans from both sides went nuts, and the racist bullshit flew too. From Reuters.
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Jack Bell at the New York Times Goal blog writes about the sad days in Sevilla with the death on the pitch of Antonio Puerta. He also recounts other infamous health moments in recent soccer history.
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I think its pretty wild that legendary Danish goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel's son Kasper is in the nets for Man City. It seems like dad just retired. From Soccernet.
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Sid Lowe at the Telegraph in England writes about Chelsea courting Ronaldinho. Is this serious or just another way for the Guacho to get even more money out of Barca.
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Kevin McCarra of the Guardian looks at UEFA President Michael Platini's plans to change the Champions League.
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The Sanchez Brothers are off on another adventure for Nike. This time they visit Germany & Werder Bremen midfielder Torsten Frings. (thanks to BQ for this)
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The big rumor is Spain today is that Juan Roman Riquelme has signed with Atletico Madrid.

Is This Thing On News

So so sad. Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta who collapsed on Saturday during the teams game v Getafe has died. He had been in an intensive care unit in an induced coma. It was originally thought that he was having a seizure, at least that was I saw while watching the game. It was later determined that he was having a massive heart attack. Reports have said he had 5 heart attacks. Although I don't know how accurate that is. A very sad day. RIP Amigo.
-Sevilla's Champion's League game today at AEK has been postponed.

~and~

For months I have been trying to figure out some sort of gauge to know when American soccer has truly "arrived" at the top of the game. And this is my conclusion - We will have arrived when we have one of those players that is in the elite of the elite. A Ronaldinho, Christiano Ronaldo, Totti, Ballack, Giggs, Henry etc. Then we will know, and the game will be very big in America. I know that's a lot to ask, but until then, we will be in that second tier.

~and~

With the signing of Denilson in Dallas there have been more articles written about the success so far this season of MLS teams using the Designated Player rule to bring in strong foreign talent. They all name check the quality of Juan Pablo Angel, Blanco & B******. But none of them mention the relative thud from Claudio Reyna. And Reyna has a contract guaranteed for next season. Oof.


Don't Forget - Tomorrow Night - SuperLiga
-Final - Wed Aug 29
Los Angeles Galaxy v Pachuca Tuzos - at the Home Depot Center time TBD.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LA has a long injury list - B****** will not play, neither will Kelly Gray, Ty Harden & Ante Jazic. Both Landon Donovan & Abel Xavier as dinged up, but expected to play.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise looks at how the initial SuperLiga has gone.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times reports on the mighty Pachuca, and their rise to North American dominance.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze with a story on LA's SuperLiga build up, young defender Mike Randolph and other team notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS
Matches & scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Salt Lake v Kansas City - 8pm central on Direct Kick
-KC midfielder Davy Arnaud will miss this game due to Yellow Card accumulation suspension.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chivas USA forward Maykel Galindo was named MLS Player Of The Week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dallas coach Steve Morrow writes on the FC Dallas Updates blog about the Denilson signing saga. I love it when we get the word right from the coach.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Both the Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News and Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram have stories on the Denilson signing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree heads to FC Dallas practice session as usual and is met with a brand new hurdle. Full training report.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News tries to figure out if New York really is suffering from the Caricola Curse.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune is reporting on this blog that Fire midfielder Justin Mapp has a bad ankle injury and will be out of action 5-7 weeks. Not good. In another post he reports that the team has released midfielder Tiago to make room for new defender Wilman Conde. So now they are down 2 midfielders. Lastly the new owners of the Chicago Fire are supposedly taking over on Sep 1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mike Biglin of MetroWest Daily News looks at what New England are going to have to do to tighten up their ship down the stretch. They may be on top, but its far from perfect.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star with a story on the real lack of depth that is killing Toronto FC right now with the injuries piling up big time.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Canada's National Post talks to a Toronto FC executive who gives coach Mo Johnston the dreaded double edged sword known as "the vote of confidence".
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I see where many articles are quoting LA Galaxy Pres Alexi Lalas today where he complains about the brutal schedule his team is having to play, and the heavy toll it is taking on his players. To this I say " WILL YA JUST SHUT UP!" Lalas could have gotten his owners at AEG to help with their schedule before it ever got this out of hand. He knew the card being dealt and never said a word until now. It's too late to complain dude! The rest of us all saw this coming and said something then, why didn't Lalas?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Emlyn Lewis of Soccer New England rates the Rev's chances of winning the Supporters Shield, the Open Cup and MLS Cup. The triple!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pete Gratoff of the Kansas City Stars reports on the KC Wizards continuing search for a home next year while Arrowhead Stadium is rebuilt. And many other KC, MLS & soccer notes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

American Soccer Daily is reporting that Danny Szetela is most likely leaving Columbus for a European club before the transfer period ends on Friday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Haydon of the Washington Times looks at the MLS strikers most likely to surpass Jamie Moreno's new all time goal scoring tally.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two of the really great people in the American soccer scene wrote guest blog entries at Red Card after I did last week. They are Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated, and the unstoppable Peter Wilt, the man who built the Chicago Fire & is always on a mission - this times its a new professional womens team in Chicago.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Greg Lalas with his weekly column for Goal.com - 3-5-2. His favorite news topics from around the globe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccernet's MLS Power Rankings.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

U17 World Cup from South Korea.
-All games on ESPNU.
-USA U17 blog.
Knock Out Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Tunisia v France
Spain v North Korea
Peru v Tajikistan
Ghana v Brazil
-Thu Aug 30
Argentina v Costa Rica
Nigeria v Colombia
USA v Germany - 5:45am central on ESPNU
England v Syria
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger writes about the path the USA U17's have taken to get to the knock out rounds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sons of Ben website has a Q & A with USA & Reading midfielder Bobby Convey.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc attended last weekends Soccer Hall of Fame induction that saw Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy and other pioneers honored. But he still comes away under-whelmed at the effort being put forth by the leaders of the game in America. I agree with him. And I would add that it's sad to see the US Open Cup has again become second rate.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Colin Linford the President of the Canadian Soccer Association has unexpectedly stepped down from his post. He said he did so due to a "lack of support from a majority of the executive and the board". Ouch. The Canadian Federation is a real mess. Let's hope they get it together, because you can clearly see that they have some good players, which will only help all of CONCACAF grow stronger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League
Third Qualifying Round matches - Second leg matches (first leg scores included)
-Tue Aug 28
Dinamo Bucuresti v Lazio (1-1)
AEK Athens v Sevilla (0-2)
- this match has been postponed due to the sad death of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta. They will play the match next Monday, Sep 3.
Liverpool v Toulouse (1-0)
Crvena Zvezda v Rangers (0-1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sevilla will however play Milan on Thursday night in the UEFA Super Cup. This yearly match pits last seasons Champions League winner v the UEFA cup winner. The match will be held in tribute to Puerta.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Valencia have signed much sought after Benfica midfielder Manuel Fernandes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ah, now here is an instant classic from Italy. Parma manager Domenico Di Carlo had been sent off by the referee but was taking a long time to live the area. Catania coach Silvio Baldini got sick of the antics and wanted to get the match rolling, so he confronted Di Carlo, and as the two argued Baldini kicked Di Carlo in the ass. Hilarious video from You Tube. (I just learned that Baldini has been given a one month ban from the sidelines! Wow!)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Manchester United forward Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has announced his retirement from football. He has been plagued with a serious knee injury over the past 3 years and has never fully recovered. He is already a legend at Man U for scoring the miracle winner v Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There are stories coming from Middlesbrough that Newcastle fans taunted Boro's Egyptian striker Mido with anti-Muslim chants. Stay tuned.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Twice in the past week Inter has tried to loan out forward Adriano but he has refused to go. He has now asked to be straight-out transferred. Expect this to happen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher suffered a broken rib and collapsed lung last Saturday in the match v Sunderland.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paul Gardner of the New York Sun with an article on the referees in the Premiership.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yeah they're from last week, but its 2 new diary entries from Fulham's resident renaissance man Moritz Volz. He went to the England v Germany game wearing a disguise and sat in the stands with the fans! What a guy.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jonathan Wilson at the Guardian gives us a rare look at the Ukrainian league. It's more than just Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Oceania has already begun their World Cup qualifying. I am not gonna post the scores so you will have to go track them down for yourself if you are just dying to see how Tuvalu did.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite Nike offering the German National Team half a billion dollars to become their new shirt sponsor, Adidas will remain the sponsor for half that amount. Adidas is a German company, hence the loyalty.

Double Gnip News

I want everyone out there to start referring to New York's new forward Francis Doe by his nickname: Grandpa. I am not kidding, that is his real nickname. Look it up if you don't believe me.

~and~

The hot rumor going around has to be Juergen Klinsmann becoming the manager of Los Angeles Galaxy. Could it be? Would he be able to do something that Frank Yallop cannot? Then there is also the rumor of Grinsi taking over Tottenham.

~and~

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati & senior team Manager Bob Bradley definitely met with Fabio Capello in London on Thursday. Take from that what you will.

~and~

Somehow the USA U17 team rebounded from losing their first two group matches at the World Cup to win their final game, and launch themselves into the next round on goal differential. Stupidly I had written them off. Great for them! (see details below)


MLS
Matches & scores:
-Sat Aug 25
Toronto 0-1 DC - goal by Fred.
New England 2-1 New York - NE goals by Taylor Twellman & Carlos Mendes Own Goal. NY goal by Jozy Altidore.
Houston 1-1 Columbus - Hou goal by Nate Jaqua. Colu goal by Alejandro Moreno.
Chicago 2-0 Kansas City - goals by Cuauhtemoc Blanco & Calen Carr.
-Sun Aug 26
Colorado 3-0 Los Angeles - goals by Conor Casey, Colin Clark & Mike Petke.
Match report by John Meyer of the Denver Post.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
Post-game notes from George Tanner at FC Rocky - wildly goofy stuff in here.
Chivas 1-0 Salt Lake - goal by Jesse Marsch.
Match report by Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times.
Match report by Ivan Orozco of the LA Daily News.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Post-game notes & follow up story by Edwards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My notes from this weekends MLS action:
-Carlos Mendes & Jon Conway of New York combined for easily the worst own goal of the year in MLS. Watch this debacle right here.
-In addition to signing Brazilian Denilson, they have also signed Sebastian Botero from Independiente Medellin in Colombia. Botero was born in America, but lived in Colombia his whole life.
-Blanco was superb for Chicago. Not much else to say - in the Spanish that's magnifico.
-One time Minnesota Thunder youngster Francis Doe aka Grandpa made his Red Bulls debut on Saturday.
-For the first time in 2 years Conor Casey looked like his old self again. Mean, tough, strong, and powering toward goal. Great to see for Colorado who suddenly are heading in the right direction again. Who said they should fire Clavijo?
-Ho ho ho, how bad are LA? Wow. Shockingly bad. Absolutely terrible. They just plain old stink. I don't care how many injuries they have. They actually started 2 guys I had never even heard of and had never played a game in LA or MLS for that matter - Mike Caso & Josh Tudela. How is that possible.
-New record for the books - Toronto FC has not scored a goal in 642 minutes and counting. They destroyed Salt Lake's old record of 557. And this one still has plenty of room to grow.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Assistant LA coach Paul Bravo has been named the Galaxy's new Director of Soccer. Official Press Release.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Davis's great weekly match summary from MLSnet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Davis also writes for Soccernet and has an article about the huge mess of a club in LA.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grant Wahl at Sports Illustrated with a feature story on Chicago's newest hero Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Birmingham (England) Mail with a story on New York forward Juan Pablo Angel, who played in their city for 7 years at Aston Villa.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Net X News with more info on Real Salt Lakes 3 new Argentine players.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrew Rogers at Soccer365 does a Q & A with young Los Angeles wingers Quavas Kirk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Golden Boot Chase:
14 Luciano Emilio
13 Juan Pablo Angel
12 Eddie Johnson
11 Taylor Twellman
10 Maykel Galindo
8 Jozy Altidore
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales at the US Soccer Players Assoc looks to see if MLS is serious about connecting with Latino fans.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS Rumors blog has DC United chasing after Shevchenko.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The St Louis Dispatch tries to balance the scales a little by reporting that potential MLS owner Jeff Cooper is going to give the public as much info as possible about asking for city funding of his stadium project. Could he be the Anti-Checketts? Or just another salesman.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Aug 23
Portland 1-0 Charleston
-Fri Aug 24
Rochester 0-2 Montreal
-Sat Aug 25
Miami 1-2 Portland
Minnesota 2-3 Atlanta
Vancouver 1-0 Charleston
-Sun Aug 26
Puerto Rico 1-0 Portland
Carolina 1-0 Montreal
Seattle 1-0 Charleston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First Division Standings:
48 Seattle
47 Portland
44 Montreal
39 Atlanta
39 Rochester
39 Puerto Rico
34 Vancouver
29 Carolina
--Playoffs End Here--
29 Charleston
28 Miami
20 Minnesota
19 California
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL Second Division - Harrisburg are league Champions!
Harrisburg 1-1 Richmond The City Islanders win it 8-7 on PK's.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with US Soccer pres Sunil Gulati. I missed this one from late last week.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Soccer has an audio podcast with goalkeeper Kasey Keller after he signed late last week to play for Fulham in London.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Yanks Abroad has a short update on DaMarcus Beasley’s start to the season at Rangers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Run DMB & Rangers go to Crvena Zvezda (aka Red Star Belgrade) on Tuesday for the Champions League with Beas' boys holding a 1-0 lead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Charlie Davies & Hammarby take on Brian West & Fredrikstad in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans in Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - was on the bench but did not play in his teams 0-0 home draw with Guimaraes.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - played 89 minutes, scored the first goal and his team won at Kilmarnock 1-2.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played 90 in the back as his team won 0-3 at Hoffenheim.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - played 90 minutes in the center of defense as his team lost again, this time 2-1 to Aston Villa.
-Nat Borchers - Odd Grenland - started and played the entire match as his team lost at home 1-3 to Viking.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the full 90 of his teams mauling at the hands of Ajax 4-1.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - started as always at centerback and his team won 1-2 at Esbjerg.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started at right back as always but his team was crushed by the Bayern Munich machine 3-0.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - came on in the 63rd minute of his teams 3-0 loss at Bolton.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - did not dress for his teams 0-2 win at Brommapojkarna.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started and played 83 minutes of his team 4-1 defeat at Leicester.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and scored the games first goal, going 90 minutes in a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 1-2 home loss to Birgmingham.
-Gabriel Ferrari - Sampdoria - did not dress for his teams 1-2 win at Siena.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - started in goal of a 1-1 draw v Everton.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - still out with his knee injury, but back at training.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started in the goal as usual but got pounded 3-0 at Bolton.
-Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg - did not dress for his teams 1-1 draw with Schalke.
-Tim Howard - Everton - started in goal of a 1-1 draw v Blackburn.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - was on the bench but did not play as his squad beat Koblenz 1-0.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - got the start for his new team, went 90 minutes in goal, but lost 2-1 to Aston Villa.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started and went 73 minutes in his teams 1-2 home loss to Birgmingham.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - out indefinitely with a dislocated knee cap.
-Lee Nguyen - PSV - did not dress for the 5-0 pasting of NEC Nijmegen.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played all 90 at his team went on the road to kill Roeselare 0-4.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - started but was subbed out at half time in his teams 1-0 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - played the full 90 in his teams 3-2 loss at Charlton.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - went 90 as his team beat Monchengladbach 4-1.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - dressed but did not play in his teams 1-1 home draw with Wigan.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - was on the bench but did not play in his teams 2-1 win over Tromso.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - started and played 74 minutes as his team won 0-3 at Hoffenheim.
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - did not dress as his team was beaten 3-0 by Bayern.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

U17 World Cup
Starts in South Korea on Saturday - running Aug 18 to Sep 9.
-You can see all the games on ESPNU.
-The USA plays in Group E, and here are their first 3 matches:
Group Stage Matches & Scores:
USA 3-4 Tajikistan - USA goals by Mykell Bates, Greg Garza & Billy Schuler. Taj goals by Farkhod Vasiev, Samad Shohzukhurov, Nuriddin Davronov & Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev.
USA 1-3 Tunisia - USA goal by Jared Jeffrey(PK). Tun goals by Nour Hadhria(2- both PK's) & Rafik Dkhil.
USA 2-0 Belgium - USA goals by Kirk Urso & Mykell Bates.
Match report from US Soccer.
Match report from Soccernet.
Post game quotes from coach & players from US Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-Team USA site.
-USA U17 blog.
-The latest insider video clips from US Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After losing their first two matches, the USA shockingly made it to the knockout stages via goal differential. They actually finished second in their group. Amazing. Most everyone, like me, thought they were dead & buried. Good for them.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USA will play Germany in the next round, with the winner getting the winner of England v Syria.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The two teams that beat the USA in the group stages, Tunisia & Tajikistan also advanced.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The host team South Korea did not advance, while their neighbors in North Korea did.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

U17 World Cup Knock Out Round
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Aug 29
Tunisia v France
Spain v North Korea
Peru v Tajikistan
Ghana v Brazil
-Thu Aug 30
Argentina v Costa Rica
Nigeria v Colombia
USA v Germany
England v Syria
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Champions League
Third Qualifying Round matches - Second leg matches (first leg scores included)
-Tue Aug 28
Dinamo Bucuresti v Lazio (1-1)
AEK Athens v Sevilla (0-2)
Liverpool v Toulouse (1-0)
Crvena Zvezda v Rangers (0-1)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Times of London with a story on Reading manager Steve Coppell.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Portsmouth goalkeeper David James writing for the Guardian about goalkeeping technique. Sounds boring, but he is a good writer and makes it about a lot more than my title makes it seem.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England's Carling Cup 2nd round
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Aug 28
Plymouth v Doncaster
Southend v Watford
Nottingham Forest v Leicester
Wigan v Hull
Birmingham v Hereford
Carlisle v Coventry
Bristol Rovers v West Ham
Derby County v Blackpool
Rochdale v Norwich City
Portsmouth v Leeds
Cardiff v Leyton Orient
MK Dons v Sheffield Utd
Burnley v Oldham
Swansea v Reading
Peterborough v West Brom
Shrewsbury v Fulham
Wolves v Morecambe
Sheffield Wed v Hartlepool
Luton v Sunderland
Wrexham v Aston Villa
Charlton v Stockport
-Wed Aug 29
Middlesbrough v Northampton
Newcastle v Barnsley
Bristol City v Manchester City
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Russian Premier League
-Standings after 22 rounds (of 30):
42 Spartak Moscow
40 Zenit St Petersburg
36 FC Moscow
34 CSKA Moscow
33 Dinamo Moscow
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some amazing things happened in the first week of La Liga:
-Barcelona with the unbelievable attack featuring Etoo, Ronaldinho, Deco, Messi and now Henry was held scoreless at Racing Santander
-All 3 newly promoted teams beat established Spanish teams in embarrassing order - Murcia beat high flying Real Zaragoza, Valladolid beat Espanyol 0-1, and most incredible of all Almeria beat Deportivo La Coruna 0-3!
-Villareal went away to Valencia and pounded them 0-3.
-Real won the Madrid derby over Atletico 2-1.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Phil Ball at Soccernet returns with his Spanish perspective.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sid Lowe at the Guardian calls La Liga's start a Weekend Of Madness.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I don't know if you watched that Sevilla game, but if you did you saw their defender Sevilla's defender Antonio Puerta crumple to the ground in the first half with what looked like a seizure. Turns out it was a heart attack. He is in critical condition. How sad.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Very interesting looking new audio podcast from EPL Talk: Episode 80 features an interview with Dougie Brimson, author of non-fiction and fiction books about hooliganism and the screenwriter responsible for the movie Green Street Hooligans starring Elijah Wood. During this candid interview, Brimson discusses what motivates soccer hooligans to cause trouble, whether the United States has anything to worry about in the future regarding soccer hooligans, and the most passionate soccer fans he has ever witnessed plus much more.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In Italy Juventus made it know that they are back with a 5-1 demolition of Livorno, and everyone is raving about Roma who won 0-2 at Palermo. But champions Inter were horrible against even worse Udinese in a 1-1 draw, oh it was ugly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated checks in with one the most surprising heroes in last years Champions League run by Milan - Clarence Seedorf.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune rounds up the weekend for the big boy clubs of Europe.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Paul Wilson at the Guardian writes a good article on how Germany has brought soccer back to the people and gotten rid of the ego's that make it all so absurd. Not to mention that they are having success with this attitude.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Format

Here is the word on CONCACAF & USA World Cup qualifying. The first possible USA game will be played next June.

The United States was among 13 nations that will receive a first-round bye in soccer's North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
FIFA, soccer's governing body, said Friday it based the decision on its rankings from May, when the United States was second in the region, a position it also holds in the latest rankings. Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Canada, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines also received first-round byes.
Twenty-two nations will be slotted into home-and-home pairings during the World Cup qualifying draw on Nov. 25 in Durban, South Africa. The 11 winners and St. Vincent will drawn against the top 12 seeds in the second round, which likely will be in June. The 12 second-round winners advance to the semifinals, which will retain the same format from 2006 qualifying, with three groups of four.
The top two teams in each semifinal group advance to the six-nation regional finals. The top three teams in the finals qualify for the 32-nation field, and the No. 4 team meets the fifth-place team from South American in a home-and-home playoff for another berth.

Out For A Couple Days

Hey all
I am gonna miss out on Fridays du Nord do to an overnight work commitment.

Couple of big news things
-Kasey Keller signs with Fulham - now 4 Americans strong.
-Real Madrid signs both Arjen Robben from Chelsea & Gabriel Heinze from Man United.
-Toronto has lost both Ronnie O'Brien & Jeff Cunningham for the rest of the season due to injuries that will need surgery.

If you have anything important to share just put it on the comments page so others can read about it.

Adios
Bruce

Mega-Bio-Riffic News

Jaime Moreno scores goal #109 of his MLS career, setting a new record in the league. He was tied at 108 with recently retired Jason Kreis. Great feat by Jaime, one of the leagues true all time great, not to mention that he has won 4 MLS Cups!

~and~

USA midfielder DaMarcus Beasley: I hate losing.


Sweden 1-0 USA goal by Kim Kallstrom in the 56th minute.
Match report from US Soccer.
Post-game quotes from USA players and coach.
Game video highlights & inside the locker room type stuff - always excellent quality. Also from US Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

du Nord Three Stars Of The Game
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic - the big Swede did not score but he was insanely dangerous on at least 3 different occasions.
2. Tim Howard - he had some huge huge huge saves to keep the USA within sight of their hosts.
1. Kim Kallstrom - that goal he hit was an absolute screamer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The USA have now lost 4 games in a row for the first time in 10 years. Not good.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Team USA blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS
Matches & scores:
-Wed Aug 22
DC 3-1 New York - DC goals by Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez & Jaime Moreno. NY goal by Juan Pablo Angel.
Match report by Steven Goff at the Washington Post.
Match report by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match report by Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald News.
Post-game notes & player ratings by Goff at Soccer Insider.
Kansas City 3-2 Chicago - KC goals by Sasha Victorine, Scott Sealy & Jose Burciaga. Chic goals by Chad Barrett & Dasan Robinson.
Match report by Bob Luder of the KC Star.
Post-game notes from the Star.
-Thu Aug 23
Los Angeles v Chivas - 9pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Aug 25
Toronto v DC - 6:30pm central on FSC, FSE & CBC
New England v New York - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Houston v Columbus - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chicago v Kansas City - 7:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Aug 26
Colorado v Los Angeles - 6pm central on Galavision
Chivas v Salt Lake - 8pm central on Direct Kick
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Defender Gonzalo Seagares of Chicago got a Red Card v KC from 2 yellows. KC scored 2 of their 3 goals after he was sent off.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

KC had over 12,000 in the stands, thanks to Chicago's Blanco. That number is sadly high for KC this year. I just don't get it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Even though Jaime Moreno has just set the MLS goal scoring record at 109, and he will add to that total, I fully expect Ante Razov to catch & pass him in the very near future. Not nessicarily this season, but in the next couple for sure.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL First Division
Matches & Scores:
-wed Aug 22
Seattle 3-0 Atlanta
-Thu Aug 23
Portland v Charleston
-Fri Aug 24
Rochester v Montreal
-Sat Aug 25
Miami v Portland
Minnesota v Atlanta
Vancouver v Charleston
-Sun Aug 26
Puerto Rico v Portland
Carolina v Montreal
Seattle v Charleston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First Division Standings:
45 Seattle
41 Portland
41 Montreal
39 Rochester
36 Atlanta
36 Puerto Rico
31 Vancouver
29 Charleston
--Playoffs End Here--
28 Miami
26 Carolina
20 Minnesota
19 California
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

USL Second Division - League Championship:
-Sat Aug 25
Harrisburg v Richmond
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

U17 World Cup
Starts in South Korea on Saturday - running Aug 18 to Sep 9.
-You can see all the games on ESPNU.
-The USA plays in Group E, and here are their first 3 matches:
Matches & Scores:
USA 3-4 Tajikistan - USA goals by Mykell Bates, Greg Garza & Billy Schuler. Taj goals by Farkhod Vasiev, Samad Shohzukhurov, Nuriddin Davronov & Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev.
USA 1-3 Tunisia - USA goal by Jared Jeffrey(PK). Tun goals by Nour Hadhria(2- both PK's) & Rafik Dkhil.
USA v Belgium - Sun Aug 26 in Cheonan 1:30am central time on ESPNU
-Team USA site
-USA U17 blog.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

3 of the 4 goals in the USA-Tunisia game came on PK's.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has an interview with USA U17 player Alex Nimo.
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The last two big leagues in Europe to start finally do so this weekend (and we get the Madrid derby in week 1!).
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La Liga
-Sat Aug 25
Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid
Sevilla v Getafe
-Sun Aug 26
Athletic Bilbao v Osasuna
Deportivo La Coruna v Almeria
Mallorca v Levante
Murcia v Zaragoza
Huelva v Betis
Valencia v Villareal
Racing Santander v Barcelona
Espanyol v Valladolid
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Serie A
-Sat Aug 25
Lazio v Torino
Juventus v Livorno
-Sun Aug 26
Fiorentina v Empoli
Genoa v Milan
Inter v Udinese
Napoli v Cagliari
Parma v Catania
Reggina v Atalanta
Siena v Sampdoria
Palermo v Roma
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James Richardson of the Guardian previews Serie A.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with Iraqi team captain and Asian Cup star Younis Mahmoud.
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Chelsea has signed Brazilian Juliano Belletti from Barcelona. He plays on the right side of defense.
-This almost assuredly means that Chelsea is done chasing another Brazilian right back - Daniel Alves from Sevilla. Personally I am happy to hear that because he would have been stifled in Chelsea's rigid formation. He plays all over the field for Sevilla, which is what makes him so dangerous.
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Yet another young Brazilian defender, left back Cicinho has left Real Madrid to sign with Roma.

International Scores From Wednesday

There were tons (45 actually) of International matches yesterday. And here are those scores - their significance, you decide.

Finland 2-1 Kazakhstan
Belgium 3-2 Serbia
Armenia 1-1 Portugal
San Marino 0-1 Cyprus
Estonia 2-1 Andorra
Northern Ireland 3-1 Liechtenstein
Norway 2-1 Argentina
Denmark 0-4 Ireland
Slovakia 0-1 France
Iceland 1-1 Canada
Romania 2-0 Turkey
Belarus 2-1 Israel
Latvia 1-2 Moldova
Bulgaria 0-1 Wales
Colombia 1-0 Mexico
Hungary 3-1 Italy
Montenegro 1-1 Slovenia
Scotland 1-0 South Africa
Ecuador 1-0 Bolivia
Tunisia v Guinea
Paraguay 1-1 Venezuela
Lithuania 2-1 Turkmenistan
Sudan 1-0 Libya
Tajikistan 2-3 Azerbaijan
Brazil 2-0 Algeria
El Salvador 2-0 Honduras
Macedonia 0-0 Nigeria
Russia 2-2 Poland
Togo 3-1 Zambia
Congo 3-1 Angola
Burkina Faso 2-3 Mali
Lesotho 3-1 Laos
Japan 2-0 Cameroon
Ukraine 2-1 Uzbekistan
Bangladesh 1-1 Cambodia
Costa Rica 1-1 Peru
England 1-2 Germany
Luxembourg 0-0 Georgia
Panama 2-1 Guatemala
Switzerland 2-1 Netherlands
Austria 1-1 Czech Republic
Bosnia-Herzegovina 5-3 Croatia
Sweden 1-0 USA
Albania 3-0 Malta
Greece 2-3 Spain

Boots Of Leather & Stone News

Guess who the guest blogger is today at Luis Arroyave's Red Card blog? Yes that's right my little chick-a-dees - ME!

~and~

Brian sent me this image. Open it up, then click on it to enlarge. Pretty cool. Let me know who you think has the "best look".

~and~

Lars Lifrak of Soccer365 has a Q & A with USA keeper Kasey Keller who is kurrently klubless.


MLS
Matches & scores:
-Wed Aug 22
DC v New York - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview by Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News.
Match preview by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Match preview by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Kansas City v Chicago - 7pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview by Bob Luder of the Kansas City star.
-Thu Aug 23
Los Angeles v Chivas - 9pm central on ESPN2
-Sat Aug 25
Toronto v DC - 6:30pm central on FSC, FSE & CBC
NEw England v New York - 6:30pm central on Direct Kick
Houston v Columbus - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
Chicago v Kansas City - 7:30pm central on HDNet
-Sun Aug 26
Colorado v Los Angeles - 6pm central on Galavision
Chivas v Salt Lake - 8pm central on Direct Kick
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Kansas City midfielder Carlos Marinelli will not play tonight v Chicago due to Yellow Card accumulation. Houston defender Eddie Robinson & Salt Lake forward Alecko Eskandarian will also miss out on game this weekend due to Yellow Card accumulation.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post with an article on DC United midfielder Josh Gros who could be forced to sit out for a long time after yet another concussion. Damn.
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Dallas backup goalkeeper Shaka Hislop is no longer on the teams roster. It's not known yet if he retired or was released or is out for the year with injury etc.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with and article on now New England assistant coach Paul Mariner has been influencing the teams powerful forward Taylor Twellman.
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Andrew Hush at Soccer New England calls Rev's midfielder Shalrie Joseph the key to the team.
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Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports has a list of 10 players MLS needs to go out and sign. This list is horrible. It's an NASL style list. It's exactly what the league does not need. Rogers looks young in his picture, so I am gonna go ahead and assume his knowledge of the NASL flop is second hand.
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The New York Times Goal blog has a Q & A with FSC game commentator Christian Miles. Honestly I can't stand the way this guy calls a game, especially his way over the top phony foreign pronunciation of names. Ok, sure he tries, but it's just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to much. Last weekend he said the name of Toronto foward Andrea Lombardo like the kid was from the oldest neighborhood in Palermo. The kid is Canadian. That would like pronouncing my name with an Irish brogue. Get over it man. On the other hand, I briefly met Christian last summer at the World Cup, and he could not have been nicer and friendlier. So it's not personal.
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And NYT's Goal has its second installment from New York 17 year old forward Jozy Altidore.
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Jane Havsy of the Daily Record in New Jersey is the latest on the Altidore bandwagon.
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The LA Galaxy are only going to be allowed to sell 12,000 tickets to the SuperLiga final next week because of a conflict with their stadium parking situation. They share parking with a University and the school is taking precedent. MLS better get their act together on this one. They are looking mighty second rate again.
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A columnist at the Seattle Times is pimping hard to get MLS in his city.
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US Soccer Men senior team blog.
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US Soccer has photos and more photos of the team training in Sweden.
-Then there is new video from training too.
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American Soccer Daily previews Sweden v USA, and gives the edge on paper to the Swedes. I concur.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times talks to American midfielder Benny Feilhaber about his move to England.
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Do you remember back about 5 years to when Danny Karbassiyoon was gonna be the next young American star to come riding high out of England? He went to Arsenal! But it didn't go as good as it could have and then injuries came. So where is he now? Turns out he is back working for Arsenal, and is a scout for them here in North America. Fantastic for him. Word has it that they are keeping at least one eye on Brad Guzan.
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Frank Dell'apa writes about two young Boston area kids trying to make their mark at the U17 World Cup - Sheanon Williams for the USA, and Aaron Maund for T&T.
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U17 World Cup
Starts in South Korea on Saturday - running Aug 18 to Sep 9.
-You can see all the games on ESPNU.
-The USA plays in Group E, and here are their first 3 matches:
Matches & Scores:
USA 3-4 Tajikistan - USA goals by Mykell Bates, Greg Garza & Billy Schuler. Taj goals by Farkhod Vasiev, Samad Shohzukhurov, Nuriddin Davronov & Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev.
USA v Tunisia - Thu Aug 23 in Changwon 2:30am central time on ESPN2 & ESPNU
USA v Belgium - Sun Aug 26 in Cheonan 1:30am central time on ESPNU
-USA U17 official website
-USA U17 blog.
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8 out of Mexico's 17 games this year have taken place in the USA. Amazing.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with an article on the grand old men of Serie A - Paolo Maldini, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero & Javier Zanetti!
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The Newcastle Chronicle with a story on young Canadian defender David Edgar who plays for Newcastle United.
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But the same paper follows that up with an article on Houston's Paul Dalglish and claims that Paul is as well known in America as B******. Hahahahahaha. That's pretty funny.
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Chuck Culpepper of the LA times on B******'s return to England.
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All Milan fans have been banned from attending Sunday's match in Genoa for fear of violence. Isn't it sad that we can't get past this kinda thing.
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Zhu Guanghu who has managed the Chinese national team for the last 3 years has been given the heave-ho. Maybe they will hire Bora back.