Frozen Pizza News

Mexico got beat by Guatemala 2-3 in LA last night. Mexicoach Hugo Sanchez blamed the field - as usual. We could have predicted that. Cuz Mexico surely never loses to an opponent. (see more details below)

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My Minnesota Thunder officially has new ownership today.


International Exhibition
Switzerland 0-1 USA - goal by Michael Bradley.
Match report from US Soccer.
Match report from American Soccer Daily
Match report from Yanks Abroad.
Match report by Paul Kennedy at Soccer America.
Match report from the Associated Press.
Match report and player ratings by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Quotes from USA coach and players, from US Soccer.
Player ratings from Goal.com.
Post-game analysis by Ives Galarcep on his Soccer by Ives blog.
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du Nord 3 stars of the game:
3 Carlos Bocanegra - Captained the team again, and held the back 4 intact to get a clean sheet in Europe
2 Michael Bradley - Scored the all important winning goal, he just can't seem to stop putting them in the net these days
1 Maurice Edu - A surprise starer in the center of midfield after an impressive first professional season in Toronto, and took his game up yet another level to compete for every single ball anywhere near him for 90 minutes. And he got better as the game went on. So while he was not brilliant out there, it was still a great start to his international career.
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Video of the goal via YouTube. (thanks to Bart for this one)
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US Soccer has both match photographs and video game highlights.
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The North Jersey Herald News with a story on Danny Szetela's USA debut last night.
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My notes from the game:
-While I am glad the team won the game, I am not happy about the USA starting the game with THREE defensive midfielders. Feilhaber, Bradley and Edu all play that position, and I think it really hampered the offense to have so few options going forward. Twellman & Dempsey only really got any help from the left side of the field in Beasley & Lewis. This is not the way forward. It was OK last night, but not something I am looking forward to.
-Ricardo Clark has to be sweating his USA career now that Edu has shown he too can play that position on the field quite well.
-The youngsters who came on late made a big difference. But I think it was the time of the game, not neccessarily who came on. I think if the subs had started we would have seen the same game, and the starters would of come on as subs and made the spark happen.
-But you do have to say that the confidence shown by Freddy Adu and Danny Szetela was fantastic. They just charged at the goal. And it brought Clint Dempsey to life as well. Great to see.
-Clint Dempsey needs a role behind a front two in my book. Free him up to get loose all over the field. Same with Landon Donovan. Turn those two loose.
-How come Dan Califf gets a shot in the back line before Jay DeMerit. Bradley keeps calling DeMerit in, but has hardly used him.
-Three or four different times the referee would call a foul when two players were tangling it up, and almost every time he called the foul on the guy who was GETTING mugged. Strange. At least he called it both ways oddly.
-That Swiss keeper was quite lame. He never really should any aggresiveness, and got torched for a soft goal.
-DaMarcus Beasley left the game in the first half with what appeared to be an ankle injury. I hope it was nothing, cuz he has his first Old Firm derby this weekend.
-This is the first time in 7 tries that our team has beaten the Swizz.
-How insane would it have been if Freddy Adu had scored a goal on that little chip he put wide of the net in the dying seconds.
-Besides Edu, Danny Szetela and Robbie Findley both got their first USA caps in this match. Adu got his second.
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MLS
Matches & scores:
-Thu Oct 18
Los Angeles v New York - 10pm central on ESPN2
Match preview by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match preview by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Match preview by Jane Havsy of the Daily Record.
Match preview by Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News.
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Dema Kovalenko of the New York Red Bulls will miss tonights game due to suspension aftger 5 Yellow Cards.
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B******'s ankle is still bothering him. A couple months back now I wrote that I thought he was going to have to have surgery on that ankle to repair it before it is 100% again. And I think this proves it.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to New York coach Bruce Arena about his teams goalkeeping situation. They don't seem settled at on in the net, or in defense for that matter. I personally think Arena has dicked around too much with the lineup.
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Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze with a story on LA midfielder Cobi Jones and what could be the final home game in his long and excellent career. Jones retires when this season ends.
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Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore writing in the New York Times Goal blog about the injury & scoring slump he finds himself in.
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3rd Degree celebrates their 10th anniversary covering FC Dallas & the Dallas Burn with their top 10 players in the clubs history. Good reading, and I think #1 is pretty obvious.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune looks at the Chicago Fire's 7 game unbeaten streak (but its only 2 wins, with 5 draws). The good part is that it has come against 5 of the leagues top 6 teams. He also gives his list of the teams top 7 achievements so far this year.
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The AP with a story on the MVP quality season from DC United forward Luci Emilio.
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The Oregonian says MLS commish Don Garber was impressed with the passion he saw after his trip to Portland to check that cities pulse on MLS expansion.
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The Baltimore Sun talked to DC United about the chances of the team leaving the capital to build a stadium in Maryland.
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Chivas USA gave out their team awards:
-Most Valuable Player - Brad Guzan
-Golden Boot - Maykel Galindo
-Defender Of The Year - Claudio Suarez
-Chivas Regal Award - Jesse Marsch ("to the player who best represents the spirit of Chivas USA")
-Humanitarian Of The Year - Brad Guzan
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International week action - Matches & Scores:
CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers
-Tue Oct 16
Venezuela 0-2 Argentina
-Wed Oct 17
Bolivia 0-0 Colombia
Paraguay 1-0 Uruguay
Brazil 5-0 Ecuador
Chile 2-0 Peru
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Oceania World Cup Qualifiers
-Wed Oct 17
Fiji 0-2 New Zealand
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Euro 2008 Qualifiers
-Wed Oct 17
Kazakhstan 1-2 Portugal
Belgium 3-0 Armenia
Azerbaijan 1-6 Serbia
Ukraine 5-0 Faroe Islands
Georgia 2-0 Scotland
Turkey 0-1 Greece
Malta 2-3 Moldova
Bosnia-Herzegovina 0-2 Norway
Macedonia 3-0 Andorra
Russia 2-1 England
Ireland 1-1 Cyprus
Liechtenstein 3-0 Iceland
Denmark 3-1 Latvia
San Marino 1-2 Wales
Luxembourg 0-2 Romania
Sweden 1-1 Northern Ireland
Netherlands 2-0 Slovenia
Germany 0-3 Czech Republic
Albania 1-1 Bulgaria
France 2-0 Lithuania
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Asian World Cup Qualifiers
-Mon Oct 15
Macau 1-7 Thailand
-Thu Oct 18
Kyrgyzstan 2-0 Jordan
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International Friendlies
-Tue Oct 16
Qatar 3-2 Iraq
Croatia 3-0 Slovakia
Bahrain 2-0 Libya
-Wed Oct 17
Mexico 2-3 Guatemala
Finland 0-0 Spain
El Salvador 0-0 Trinidad & Tobago
Estonia 0-1 Montenegro
Morocco 2-0 Namibia
Poland 0-1 Hungary
Japan 4-1 Egypt
Costa Rica 1-1 Haiti
Austria 3-2 Cote d'Ivoire
Switzerland 0-1 USA
Italy 2-0 South Africa
United Arab Emirates 0-1 Tunisia
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Guatemala turned up the steam and stunned Mexico 3-2 in Los Angeles last night!!! Wooooohoooo!
Match report by Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
-Two players from each team got Red Cards, including our friend Carlos Ruiz!
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Oh how the teeth gnashing in England must be gruesome today. All those tabloid papers, with back pages to fill with giant anti-McLaren headlines. Poor Stevie and his massively overrated team will take a beating. But the coach will take most of it, cuz it surely couldn't be the fault of those players. No, they are brilliant. And there is the matter of the artificial turf. Oh my goodness.
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Kevin McCarra of the Guardian with the scoop on the Russian 2-1 over England.
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Germany having already clinched their spot in next summers Euro tournament laid an egg yesterday in a 0-3 loss to the Czechs.
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The win put the Czech's into the tournament. Greece and Romania also secured their spots.
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And Scotland fell on their face after such a great run and lost 2-0 in Georgia.
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Didier Drogba told France Football magazine that he wants out of Chelsea.
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Thierry Henry broke the French national team scoring record of 41 held by Michel Platini. Henry now has 43.
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Brazil, led by Kaka, Ronaldinho & Robinho, scored 4 goals between the 73th & 85th minutes to eventually cruise to a 5-0 home win over Ecuador.