Sob Slob Snob News

New York coach Bruce Arena comments on the big crowd and his teams 5-4 win over LA: “It’s our job when people show up to give them a reason to come back. So hopefully we converted a few people to grow this franchise because we have a long way to go.”

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Chicago Fire captain Chris Armas talks about new teammate Cuauhtemoc Blanco: "He's been fantastic for us. He's really a great competitor, really is a great player. I never got to appreciate him that much in the USA-Mexico games because it's just such a hard-fought (game), never great soccer either way — really just a fight. But here, every day in practice, his ability to go forward, his vision going forward, he's really one of the best players I've ever played with in that regard."

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Freddy Adu's coach, Fernando Santos, at his new club Benfica has already been fired after one Champions League game (road win) and one league game (road draw)! Insanity. One of the teams former coaches, Jose Antonio Camacho of Spain has been rehired.


MLS
Matches & scores:
-Sat Aug 18
Toronto 0-2 Chivas - Corrected: goals by Maykel Galindo & Sacha Kljestan.
Match report by Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star.
Match report by Larry Morgan of the Toronto Globe & Mail.
Columbus 0-2 DC - goals by Fred & Luciano Emilio.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Post-game notes & DC player ratings by Goff at Soccer Insider.
New York 5-4 Los Angeles - NY goals by Juan Pablo Angel(2), Jozy Altidore(2) & Clint Mathis. LA goals by Carlos Pavon(2), Landon Donovan & Edson Buddle.
Match report by Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News.
Match report by Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
Match report from the New York Times. (Pathetically it took B****** to get the times to write a match report for their home team)
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
Post-game NY coach & player quotes by Lewis.
Salt Lake 0-2 Chicago - Corrected: goals by Cuauhtemoc Blanco & Paulo Wanchope.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
-Sun Aug 19
Houston 1-0 Dallas - goal by Brian Ching.
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report from the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Match report from the Dallas Morning News.
Post-game notes from Fallas.
Kansas City 0-1 New England - goals by Taylor Twellman.
Match report by Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star.
Match report by Frank Dellapa of the Boston Globe.
Match report by John Connolly of the Boston Herald.
Post-game notes by Luder.
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My thoughts from MLS matches this weekend:
-4 of the 6 road teams got clean sheets this weekend. Not bad for the roadies. Terrible for the home fans though. And look at the big name players who got the goals too. Impressive.
-I am not writing this to pick on Toronto FC, but how come earlier this year Danny Dichio did not recieve a suspension when he bit Chicago's Diego Gutierrez, and then last week Andrea Lombardo punched New York's Hunter Freeman and was not given a suspension either. Both were clearly caught on tape and discussed by the game announcers? Anyone?
-Without the big mutton chop sideburns Houston defender Wade Barrett is the twin brother of Newcastle's Michael Owen. I am not kidding.
-Looks like Barrett shipped his facial hair to goalkeeper Joe Cannon in LA. Cannon is now sporting the faux Rebel Biker look.
-How come the name of New England keeper Matt Reis is pronounced "rees", when it should be pronounced "rice" It should be spelled Ries, to pronounce it "rees".
-Clint Mathis scored his 45th (corrected - thanks Dan) career goal for New York, making his the teams all time leader.
-It's now been 552 minutes since Toronto has scored a goal. The league record is 557 held by Salt Lake. I smell a new record holder just around the corner.
-I have read the name of Colorado midfielder Colin Clark in a positive light after several of the last half dozen Rapids matches. Can someone fill me in. Is he for real?
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Steve Davis with his always high quality weekend match wrap-up at MLSnet.
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Kristian Dyer at Soccernet writes about New York striker Jozy Altidore, who at 17 is a boy among men, but plays like a man among boys!
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Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports raves about NY striker Jozy Altidore too!
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James Edwards at the Deseret Morning News writes about Fabian Espindola the Argentine striker RSL just signed who made his debut Saturday. 2 other Argies have just been signed by the team as well and should be seeing game time very soon, they are midfielder Javier Morales & defender Matias Mantilla.
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The Deseret Morning News says that, not surprisingly, a lot of Mexicans turned out to see Chicago's Temoc Blanco on Saturday night.
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Senile old buffoon Bobby Robson has been quoted as saying that B****** will fall down the quality ladder by playing in MLS. I am sure Bobby has spent plenty of time here studying the game.
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I don't remember Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune ever writing about American soccer. It took B****** to make it happen.
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Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News with a story on red-hot Dallas forward Arturo Alvarez. (posted before Sunday's game)
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The Denver Post has an article on Colorado coach Fernando Clavijo who is very upset with fans of his team who want him fired. Until last Sunday when they shocked league leaders Houston 1-0 on an own goal the Rapids had not won a game since May 26. They did not score a goal in the month of June & only got 2 in July. They also got decapitated 5-0 at Seattle (of the First Division) in the US Open Cup. Clavijo is most upset because the loud fan protests upset his kids. Fair enough, but I kinda doubt the fans said anything bad about his kids or him personally, just the abysmal performance of his team. And to that I should also mention that you haven't seen one quote from the players saying they love the coach and it's all their fault.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle writes about the growing Dynamo v FC Dallas rivalry. (posted before Sunday's game)
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Ethan sent me an oddly interesting news item from Orlando: A press release says Jimmy Lyons, the martial arts guy not the guy who played sax with Cecil Taylor, is planning to build a sports facility and wants to make MLS part of it. Very few details.
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The latest guest-blogger at the Red Card is Chicago defender Dasan Robinson!
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I noticed the old Russian newspaper Pravda had a story on B****** today, but I am not linking to it cuz it's just more of the same, but it's still Pravda writing about MLS. Hahahahahaha.
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USL First Division
Matches & Scores:
-Fri Aug 17
Carolina 0-0 Atlanta
Puerto Rico 1-0 Miami
-Sat Aug 18
Minnesota 0-1 Rochester
California 0-1 Seattle
Vancouver 0-2 Montreal
-Sun Aug 19
Puerto Rico 3-2 Miami
-wed Aug 22
Seattle v Atlanta
-Thu Aug 23
Portland v Charleston
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First Division Standings:
42 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
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Brian Ching of Houston has been named to the USA team that will play in Sweden on Wednesday. He is replacing Josh Wolff who has been excused from the team for "personal reasons".
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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:
USA 3-4 Tajikistan - USA goals by Mykell Bates, Greg Garza & Billy Schuler. Taj goals by Farkhod Vasiev, Samad Shohzukhurov, Nuriddin Davronov & Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev.
Match report from US Soccer, with post-game team quotes.
Thu Aug 23 in Changwon v Tunisia - 2:30am central time on ESPN2 & ESPNU
Sun Aug 26 in Cheonan v Belgium - 1:30am central time on ESPNU
-Team USA site
-USA U17 blog
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Americans in Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - did not dress as his team drew 1-1 with Leixoes to open their league season.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - did not dress for his teams 7-2 beatdown of Falkirk.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - started as usual and even scored a goal and penalty giving the defender a glorious 2 goal performance in a 3-1 win over Kaiserslautern!
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - played the whole match at centerback in a 1-2 loss to Middlesbrough.
-Nat Borchers - Odd Grenland - started and went 90 minutes on a league Cup game in beating Viking 2-1.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - started and played the whole of a 0-0 draw with Willem II to start the season.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - played the entire match but his team lost 2-3 to Odense.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went 90 minutes at right back in his team 1-2 win at Karlsruhe.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - finally made his return to the field after that bad knee injury, coming on in the 79th minute of a 1-0 win over Everton.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - started and went the whole 90 minutes but his team lost at home 0-1 to Halmstads.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - Started and played the whole game as his team beat Sheffield United 1-0 at home.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on as an injury sub in the 35th minute and missed a wide open net from close range, as his team went down 1-2 to Middlesbrough.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - dress by did not play in his teams 4-0 loss at Tottenham.
-Gabriel Ferrari - Sampdoria - season starts next weekend.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played the entire match as usual in a 1-1 home draw with Arsenal.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - still training in recovery from a knee injury. Should be ready to go soon. His team lost 2-1 at Stoke.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started as always and beat Everton 1-0.
-Kamani Hill - Wolfsburg - still has not even seen the bench under the new coach. His team beat Duisburg 3-1.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played 90 minutes in a 1-0 loss at Reading.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - was on the bench but did not play in a 1-0 win over Carl Zeiss Jena.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - did not dress for his new teams 4-0 pasting at the hands of Tottenham.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - started and got his teams first goal in the 20th minute, but badly dislocated his left knee in the process. He could be out for several months. The team lost 1-2 to Middlesbrough.
-Lee Nguyen - PSV - did not dress for his teams 0-2 win at Heracles Almelo.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the full 90 in the center of defense as they won 4-1 over Cercle Brugge.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - went 90 in a 1-2 loss to Nurmberg.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - played the full 90 but his team got blasted 1-3 at home by Wolverhampton.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - started and played the whole match but lost 3-0 at Greuther Furth.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - started and went 86 minutes in a 0-1 win at Birmingham.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - the team did not play this weekend.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - started and set up his teams second goal in a 3-1 win over Kaiserslautern.
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - did not dress for his teams 1-2 win over Karlsruhe.
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Lars Lifrak at Soccer365 has a Q & A with USA & Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.
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Martin del Palacio Langer of World Soccer writes about the rising young stars of Mexican soccer, and how many of them are either already in Europe or headed their shortly. Via Sports Illustrated.
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The Times of London with an article on former Fulham manager Chris Coleman who now runs the ship at Real Sociedad in Spain. Who saw that coming? Not me.
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The Observer says English politicians are going to seriously consider allowing big time English football stadiums to return to the practice of allowing "all-standing" or terrace areas.
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Italian Super Cup
Inter 0-1 Roma
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Spanish Super Cup
Real Madrid 3-5 Sevilla
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Russian Premier League
-Standings after 21 rounds (of 30):
42 Spartak Moscow
37 Zenit St Petersburg
33 Dinamo Moscow
33 FC Moscow
31 CSKA Moscow
30 Lokomotiv Moscow
30 Amkar Perm