Monday, October 01, 2007

Made Out Of Wood News

Congrats to Seattle on their 4th First Division title. It's hard to wish them the best though, cuz if I loathe any team, it's them.

~and~

How did Columbus defender Frankie Hejduk feel about losing to Los Angeles on Sunday?: "A couple of chairs were thrown."


USL First Division Final
Seattle 4-0 Atlanta - goals by Greg Howes(2), Hugo Alcaraz-Cuellar & Craig Tomlinson.
Match report from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.
Match report from the Seattle Times.
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Why if the other two rounds of the USL First Division playoffs are two legged isn't the final? I think it's an awful advantage to one team. Some have argued to me that this is their reward for finishing higher in the standings during the regular season, but I say hosting the second leg and any possible overtime & penalty kick shootout is reward enough. Get rid of this joke of a final game and do two legs to make it fair. Then we can have a TRUE champion.
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The Seattle Times asks if this was the last First Division game for the Seattle Sounders.
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MLS
Matches & scores:
-Sat Sep 29
DC 4-1 Toronto - DC goals by Marc Burch, Fred2, Jaime Moreno & Luci Emilio. Tor goal by Carl Robinson.
Match report by Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.
Match report by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Post-game notes and DC United coach & player quotes by Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post.
New England 1-0 Colorado - goal by Khano Smith.
Match report by Rich Thompson of the Boston Herald.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report by Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News.
New York 2-2 Salt Lake - NY goals by Grandpa Doe & Juan Pablo Angel(PK). RSL goals by Chris Brown & Kyle Beckerman.
Match report by Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News.
Match report by Dylan Butler of Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
Match report by James Edward of the Deseret Morning News.
Match report from Jon Gilbert of the Daily Utah Chronicle.
Post-game notes by Edward.
Chivas 1-1 Chicago - Chiv goal by Claudio Suarez(PK). Chic goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
Match report by Ivan Orozco of the Daily Breeze.
Match report by Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times.
Post-game notes by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his Red Card blog.
-Sun Sep 30
Dallas 0-3 Houston - Hou goals by Dwayne DeRosario, Eddie Robinson & Stuart Holden.
Match report by Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Match report by Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News.
Match report from the Houston Chronicle.
Post-game notes from the Chron.
Columbus 1-2 Los Angeles - Colu goal by Ale Moreno. LA goals by Troy Roberts & Kyle Martino.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
Post-game analysis from the Columbus Dispatch. Well said.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Steve Davis at MLSnet with his always excellent weekly MLS match round up.
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My notes from the weekends matches:
-I have to start with Ricardo Clark's meltdown on Carlos Ruiz in the Texas derby. Holy smokes. Here is the video in case you missed it. We all know Pescadito gets under peoples skin, but Clark went too far. It appears as though Ruiz fouls Clark pretty hard from behind, but we can't really see the damage. It's all about Clarks reaction. Wow. He could very well be out the rest of the season and playoffs for that one.
-There are still no teams officially eliminated from the playoffs.
-Brian Mullan did not play for Houston due to an abdominal muscle strain.
-Dallas's big money signing Denilson is terrible.
-Chicago's Paulo Wanchope looks even more useless. He is simply out of gas. Floyd Franks was subbed in for him and looked amazing by comparison. Yes Floyd Franks, one half of the Franks & Beans combination (with Chad Barrett).
-Eddie Gaven of Columbus is looking good again after a couple of pretty duff years. He had all that promise as a youngster and then seemed to slip away, but me looks very grown up out there. Good for him.
-Two words - Dionne Miller!!!!!
-Chicago threw away 2 more points on Sunday bringing the weeklong total to 6. They had the lead in 3 consecutive games, started playing awful bunkerball and were tied every time. They gotta stop this crap. Wiser people than me have said many times, the best defense is a good offense. Chicago has it, they just have to use it.
-Juan Pablo Angel got his 17th goal of the season in New York, breaking the club record of 16 held by Adolfo Valencia.
-Speaking of New York - Grandpa fever is gripping the team! Francis Grandpa Doe scored for a second straight game! Go Grandpa Go.
-Kyle Beckerman was huge for Salt Lake and scored a brilliant one time volley goal. Fantastic performances nearly every game have become the norm for him. Colorado got 100% fleeced in the trade for Beckerman that gave them Medhi Balloucy in return.
-Did you see Claudio Reyna go out hurt again. Ugh. Just when he was starting to roll. I also find it interesting that a couple weeks ago he was beginning to take a lot of heat from fans, blogs and the press about his salary v his performance, and since then he has picked it up. But now this.
-How long has Guilermo Barros Schelotto been out for Columbus? It seems like a month already. They are really struggling without his touch. He has a hamstring muscle tear.
-In their match Sunday Columbus was wearing their usual black with gold trim, but LA keeper Joe Cannon came out wearing all Navy blue with gold trim. How did the referee allow that?
-It was great to see that Crew Stadium has filled in the one with seats. There used to be a covered area on the south end of the field with a second level of seats above it. But its filled in all the way down now. Excellent move. It looks good.
-Jaime Moreno scored the 112th goal of his MLS career.
-Luci Emilio bagged his 20th goal of the season. He leads the league.
-Carey Tally of Salt Lake played in his 200th league game this weekend.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

What was the attendance of the 6 MLS games this weekend?
New England - 19,166 (v Colorado)
New York - 15,855 (v Salt Lake)
DC - 25,174 (v Toronto)
Chivas - 27,000 (v Chicago)
Dallas - 17,366 (v Houston)
Columbus - 24,300 (v Los Angeles)
Total - 128,811
Average - 21,469
Who as is that said the fall was bad for MLS because of all the American football games?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The most promising young soccer talent to emerge from my Twin Cities in a decade, Abdusalam Ibrahim, scored his first goal for the FC Dallas Reserves on Sunday as they beat Houston 1-0! I like it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports writes about Cuauhtemoc Blanco. He chronicles the Mexican legend's weekend in LA.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram profiles young Dallas midfielder Dax McCarty who has come on strong this season. (from Sunday)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Washington Post with an article on DC United midfielder Clyde Simms. (story ran on Saturday)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The US Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston. (from Saturday after 4-1 loss to DC United)
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet tells us who will win the MLS post-season awards.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jane Havsy of the Bergin Daily Record with the story of New York's Grandpa Doe. (from Saturday)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com breaks down the Colorado problems (do more than 11 people care?), and then gives us his recap of the week that was in MLS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff over at Center Holds It explains why he, a Portlander who supports the Portland Timbers, would support the Seattle Sounders if they moved to MLS. He will catch a lot of flack from the dirty stinky hippies for this one.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wednesday night is the US Open Cup final - Dallas v New England - and Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe is getting a jump on pregame articles.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Sudamericana
Second Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Sep 26
Vasco da Gama 3-2 Lanus - Vasco advance 3-2 on aggregate.
Sao Paulo 1-0 Boca Juniors tied 2-2 on agg, with Sao Paulo winning on away goals.
Arsenal 1-1 Goias Arsenal adv 4-3 on agg.
-Sep 27
River Plate 4-3 Botafogo - River win it 4-3 on agg.
-Tue Oct 2
Guadalajara Chivas v DC United (1-2) - delayed at 10pm central on Fox Soccer Channel.
-Wed Oct 3
America v Pachuca (4-1)
-Thu Oct 4
El Nacional v Defensor Sporting (0-3)
Colo Colo v Millonarios (1-1)
-The following teams have already advanced to the semifinals: Vasco de Gama, Sao Paulo, Arsenal (who awaits the winner of DC v Chivas) & River Plate. 4 more to go now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC United midfielder Fred came out of DC's game late on Saturday with a groin muscle strain. Not good for Tuesday night's Copa match.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans in Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 83rd minute of the Lisbon derby match v Sporting which ended 0-0.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - came on as a 55th minute sub and drew a penalty that allowed his team to draw 1-1 at Motherwell.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played the full 90 in a 2-2 home draw with Koblenz.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - the captain played all 90 minutes of a goalless draw at Chelsea.
-Nat Borchers - Odd Grenland - started but appears to have been subbed out after only 18 minutes (injury?) in a 1-4 home loss to Valerenga.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - played 90 but lost 2-0 at Feyenoord.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - played the full 90 in the center of defense as his team beat Viborg 3-2.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - started as always and played the entire match as they won 2-1 over Duisburg.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - out with a thigh injury, and lucky for him as his team was on the wrong end of 7-4 loss at Portsmouth.
-Charlie Davies - Hammarby - play at Goteborg tonight.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - out with an injured knee, while his team drew 1-1 at Blackpool.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - went the distance in a 0-0 draw at Chelsea. The bad news for Clint is that an elbow of his caught Chelsea's John Terry in the face and caused a fractured cheekbone. Last year CD broke Jimmy Conrad's jaw.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 1-1 home tie with Bolton.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - started as always and won 0-2 at the dreadful Sunderland.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started as always, but I bet he wishes he were somewhere else when the game ended 7-4 in favor of home team Portsmouth.
-Tim Howard - Everton - Tim-may was back in action, played the whole game and beat Middlesbrough 2-0 at home.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - started but got a yellow for an awful tackle that broke his opponents leg, and they lost at Osnabruck 3-1. He could very well be suspended for that foul.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - was in goal for his team as they went to Chelsea and came home with a point from a 0-0 tie game.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started and played 84 minutes in a home 1-1 tie with Bolton.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played 90 but it must have felt like a loss to tie last place St Trond 0-0. Trond had a grand total of ZERO points coming into this game.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - did not dress for his teams huge 2-1 win over Stuttgart.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - went the distance and got the assist in a 0-1 win at Norwich.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - did not dress for his teams 1-0 loss at Arsenal.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played the whole match as they lost 1-0 at Hoffenheim.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - beat Rosenborg 4-3.
-Quentin Westberg - Troyes - started in the goal for his teams 0-1 home loss to Nice.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - did not play due to injury as the team tied Koblenz 2-2 at home.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Big Eurocentric matches this weekend:
-Roma 1-4 Inter Milan - Roma played a long time with only 10 men and paid a heavy price as Inter are now alone in first place.
-Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Bayern Munich - the nearly unstoppable forward tandem of Luca Toni & Miroslav Klose did it again as Klose passed to Toni for the only goal needed.
-Benfica 0-0 Sporting - the Lisbon derby ends scoreless.
-Torino 0-1 Juventus - the Turin derby sees David Trezeguet pull a rabbitt out of some sort of hat.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Mexican league is using a pink ball all month long to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pretty cool.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Champions League - Matchday 2
Matches & Scores"
-Tue Oct 2
Lyon v Rangers
Stuttgart v Barcelona
Manchester United v Roma
Dynamo Kyiv v Sporting
CSKA Moskva v Fenerbahçe
Inter v PSV
Steaua v Arsenal
Sevilla v Slavia
-Wed Oct 3
Liverpool v Marseille
Besiktas v Porto
Valencia v Chelsea
Rosenborg v Schalke
Lazio v Real Madrid
Bremen v Olympiacos
Celtic v Milan
Benfica v Shakhtar
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Russian Premier League
-Standings after 25 rounds (of 30):
49 Zenit St Petersburg
46 Spartak Moscow
43 FC Moscow
38 CSKA Moscow
28 Saturn Moscow
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Independent of England has a candid conversation with Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez. He is a smart dude. The headline is all about Mourinho, but the article isn't. (thanks to BQ for this one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bayern Munchen keeper Oliver Wrath of Kahn is going to have surgery to remove bones spurs from one of his elbows and will be out of action for about a month or more.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has a Q & A with young Dutch Ajax striker Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
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Phil Ball at Soccernet rounds up La Liga by focusing on The New Messi(ah).
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Sid Lowe of the Guardian with his La Liga weekend weeview.
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The 11 goals scored between Portsmouth & Reading this weekend were the most scored in one game of the English top division since 14 were scored in 1958.
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The Observer says the ugliness at Chelsea just keeps getting uglier.
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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich goes into the stands to greet his admirers.
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The Times of London gets a peek at Liverpeople star Steven Gerrard off the field.
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The Times also goes indepth with former England great Teddy Sherringham. I believe he played for every team in the Premiership at one time or another.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Observer has an English translation of a Q & A that France Football did with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Finally today, Fulham genius Moritz Volz writes about the bane of the lockeroom - R&B. And we also get many more excellent examples of dressing room music. From the Times.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

If this was a true football country, the final would be at a neutral stadium. But alas, if they did that, nobody would be there to witness it.

Oh wait, if this was a true football country, there would be no playoffs. The Sounders would've been USL-1 champions anyway.

A two-legged final would be a joke, IMO.

5:47 PM  
Blogger Zathras said...

As it stands, since 1996 the host has won every single USL-1 championship except one. I think that that is grounds enough to show that homefield advantage is tipping the balance too far.

2007 - Seattle Hosts, defeats Atlanta
2006 - Rochester Hosts, loses to Vancouver
2005 - Seattle Hosts, defeats Richmond (PK)
2004 - Montreal Hosts, defeats Seattle
2003 - Charleston hosts, defeats Minnesota
2002 - Milwaukee Hosts, defeats Richmond (OT)
2001 - Rochester Hosts, defeats Hershey
2000 - Rochester hosts, defeats Minnesota
1999 - Minnesota Hosts, defeats Rochester
1998 - Rochester hosts, defeats Minnesota
1997 - Milwaukee hosts, defeats Carolina (OT)
1996 - California hosts, defeats Richmond (SO)/Seattle Hosts, defeats Rochester

6:00 PM  
Blogger Zathras said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

6:02 PM  
Blogger Zathras said...

Clark should probably get 4-5 games for that, but watching the replay, I hope that Ruiz gets three as well. He appeared to intentionally *jump* on Clark as he fell, both feet cleats down. That's at least as disgusting. And then he made it worse by grabbing his head when he was kicked in the arm.

6:03 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's a great interview with Arsene Wenger. The more I hear and read about that man the more I respect him, one of the game's true thinkers. And we need as many distinctive characters as we can get with Mourinho sadly gone (for now).

6:19 PM  
Blogger kj said...

Actually, the stands have always been there in Columbus. They're just usually folded up. They were pulled out for the 2005 US v Mexico qualifier, as shown in this picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-kj/178187464/in/set-72157594182186632/

9:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If Seattle goes to MLS the Timbers death watch begins.

Also doesn't Mexico have a playoffs and home/away final? Is Mexico not a football country?

smatthew

7:58 AM  
Blogger The Manly Ferry said...

smatthew, my that's a provocative thought. There is a kind of fear-reaction I got to both posts on what it means to be a fan (here's the follow-up post where I tried to explain my position a little less stridently; it contains the added bonus of seeing first-hand the intensity of the rivalry among both supporters' groups; let's just say there's no point in denying the reality of it).

On the subject of the "dirty stinking hippies" (brucio's term - and, yeah, I laughed), them hippies are packing shivs I tell ya!

12:59 PM  
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9:48 PM  

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