Gettin' By Without It News

I will be at the Chicago v Los Angeles game this Sunday. Let's hope its for all the marbles! Let me know if you are gonna be there.

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I will also be bringing a gang to DC for the MLS Cup. Lets rock that beast.

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I might have neglected to state this on Monday, but Columbus was elimidated from the MLS playoff chase.

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Thierry Henry to Jack Bell of the New York Times: "I always say that one day I can play over there. I would love to. But it’s still early. Don’t get me wrong, I just love the U.S. I don’t know why. I love the way you live. I love American sports. For me, it’s a dream to go to training and then see a game of football, basketball, whatever game. For me, New York is the best city in the world." (see article linked below)


MLS
-Mon Oct 15
Salt Lake 0-1 Houston - goal by Stuart Holden.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match report by Jon Gilbert of the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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The Deseret Morning News and the Salt Lake Tribune both on the farewell for Eddie Pope of Real Salt Lake who is retiring.
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The Salt Lake Tribune with a column on the job Dave Checketts has done so far with his soccer team in Salt Lake City.
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Columbus midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto was named MLS Player Of The Week.
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Steve Davis recaps the entire past week on MLSnet as only he can. Great stuff.
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And Steve Davis writing at Soccernet looks at the playoff race pile-up.
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Jeff Bradley at MLSnet plays Survivor with the remaining playoff contestants.
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Pat Walsh at Goal.com says that if a team like LA can get in the playoffs, then there are too many spots to begin with. I can't argue with him. But we both find that watching LA try has been a lot of fun.
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Luis Arroyave on his Red Card blog says Chicago midfielders Justin Mapp & Ivan Guerrero are still not fully back from injury and are unlikely to see action this weekend.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe says attendance and crowd volume are up this season at New England games in Foxborough.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger with an article on Kansas City Wizards Technical Director Peter Vermes (a Jersey kid).
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze looks at the differences between the way things are done by the LA Galaxy & Chivas USA.
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Billy Witz of the LA Daily News says the Galaxy simply have to win both of their games and they are in the playoffs. Is that right? I haven't spent any time trying to figure this out, but I don't remember having read anywhere else that LA's path is that clear.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports writes about LA's rise to success without Golden Balls.
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Chris Klein has been named LA Galaxy's MVP.
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Nick Rimando has been named Real Salt Lake's MVP.
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Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News on New York Red Bulls striker Juan Pablo Angel and the MLS Most Valuable Player award.
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The Columbus Crew have signed a youth development deal with Brad Friedel's Premier Soccer Academies in suburban Cleveland. Excellent move.
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Before Saturday's DC United game there will be a tribute match played to honor team legend Marco Etcheverry. The will pit the 1997 DCU v Hollywood United (a team of former MLS & world players and celebs from LA).
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The race for the MLS Golden Boot:
20 Luciano Emilio
19 Juan Pablo Angel
15 Eddie Johnson
15 Taylor Twellman
-Those last two aren't really in the race I just wanted to list them to show the value of the top 2.
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Jack Bell with 3 articles in the New York Times and the Goal blog: LA's chase for MLS playoffs, Who should start for the USA tomorrow?, and Thierry Henry is becoming known in America.
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The 3rd and final part of the Blue Sky Soccer interview (text and audio, conducted by myself and Paul Demko) with Minnesota Thunder coach Amos Magee is now online.
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Switzerland v USA
-Wednesday October 17
Live on Fox Soccer Channel at 1:30pm central time.
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US Soccer with a video feature on our man Deuce, Clint Dempsey.
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It sure looks at though USA coach Bradley is using this game as a tryout for next years Olympic team. US Soccer tells us that "11 players on the current roster are age-eligible for the 2008 Olympic Games : Freddy Adu, Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Benny Feilhaber, Robbie Findley, Tally Hall, Steve Purdy, Chris Seitz, Danny Szetela, Preston Zimmerman and Sal Zizzo."
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Match preview from American Soccer Daily.
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-The official USA blog. Read about Taylor Twellman's run in with an eel. Really.
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FIFA with a great article on the strong American goalkeeping presence in England this season. They also flag Brad Guzan and Chris Seitz as the ones to watch.
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American forward Josh Wolff is healthy again and should be ready to play of his club 1860 of Munich this weekend.
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It's International week, which means that there are national team matches all over the globe:
CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers
-Tue Oct 16
Venezuela v Argentina
-Wed Oct 17
Bolivia v Colombia
Paraguay v Uruguay
Brazil v Ecuador
Chile v Peru
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Oceania World Cup Qualifiers
-Wed Oct 17
Fiji v New Zealand
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Euro 2008 Qualifiers
-Wed Oct 17
Kazakhstan v Portugal
Belgium v Armenia
Azerbaijan v Serbia
Ukraine v Faroe Islands
Georgia v Scotland
Turkey v Greece
Malta v Moldova
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Norway
Macedonia FYR v Andorra
Russia v England
Ireland Republic v Cyprus
Liechtenstein v Iceland
Denmark v Latvia
San Marino v Wales
Luxembourg v Romania
Sweden v Northern Ireland
Netherlands v Slovenia
Germany v Czech Republic
Albania v Bulgaria
France v Lithuania
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Asian World Cup Qualifiers
-Mon Oct 15
Macau v Thailand
-Wed Oct 17
Kyrgyzstan v Jordan
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International Friendlies
-Tue Oct 16
Qatar v Iraq
-Wed Oct 17
Mexico v Guatemala
Finland v Spain
El Salvador v Trinidad & Tobago
Estonia v Montenegro
Morocco v Namibia
Poland v Hungary
Japan v Egypt
Costa Rica v Haiti
Austria v Cote d'Ivoire
Switzerland v USA
Italy v South Africa
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The players in die Bundesliga have voted Diego of Werder Bremen as the top player in the league for the 2006/07 season. He is a good one. Mario Gomez finished 2nd and Bernd Schneider 3rd.
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Did you know: In the Portuguese Liga, Benfica, Porto & Sporting have won 71 of the 73 league titles! Belenenses & Boavista won the other two. Kinda sad isn't it. But its still better than the Scottish League record where Celtic & Rangers (only two teams both from Glasgow) have won nearly every title.
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Mike over at the Needle In The Hay blog has a great essay on Didier Drogba. DD was a player that Mike has grown to love after hating him at first. It happens to the best of us man.
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The soccer writer for the CBC website is in Rome for a month and checks in with word on his massive dose of calcio.
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Inter Milan has been punished after their fans hung insulting banners during the game v Napoli. The Curva Nord section of the stadium, where the most ardent supporters sit, will be closed for the next home match and the team was fined 30,000 Euros. Supposedly two of the offending banners said: "Napoli, the sewer of Italy" & "“Welcome cholera sufferers". I really hope they weren't punished for that. (BTW, I find that second one quite funny in a mean way)
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Mali players and fans were attacked after their team beat Togo 0-2 in Lome to advance to the African Nations Cup next winter. It sounds pretty bad.
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Man United near-legend Ryan Giggs has had his contract extended through the end of the 2008/09 season.
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Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian with an article on Victor Piturca the man leading Romania to new success.
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Paul Gardner of the New York Sun writes about the tactics being applied by Dunga's version of Brazil. Gardner must be hating it.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune with stories on two hugely popular games going on this week. One in Russia and one in Brazil.
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And I think there was more out there that I just simply didn’t get to today. Sorry about that.