Your Little Friend News

DC United has won the Supporters Shield for 2007. Meaning that they are the best MLS team in the regular season! They are also the first team in league history to win it in back to back years. Major congrats are in order! (Insert crowd roar here!)

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It was a big weekend here at du Nord. I did an interview with Kartik at Major League Soccer Talk, where we talked playoffs and all the best MLS news, download or listen here. Plus during the NY v KC game du Nord got a huge Shout Out from our main man Shep Messing!!! Thank you thank you thank you Sir Shep!

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With only 1 week to go in the MLS regular season those two final playoff spots are still up for grabs. Columbus, despite winning was elimidated because the best they can do it tie Chicago or KC and those teams hold the tiebreaker over Columbus. So 4 teams for 2 spots. LA has 2 games left to play in which they must win or tie this Thursday to stay alive, while the other 3 have just one shot to get it right. (See more playoff scenario details below.)

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New England forward Taylor Twellman & Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan have flown to Switzerland to become part of the USA team that will play Switzerland on Wednesday.


MLS
Matches & scores:
-Thu Oct 11
Dallas 0-0 Chivas
-Sat Oct 13
DC 0-0 Chicago
Match report by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match report by John Haydon of the Washington Times.
Post-game quotes and notes from Goff at the Soccer Insider.
New England 2-3 Columbus - NE goals by Taylor Twellman & Steve Ralston. Colu goals by Eddie Gaven, Stefani Miglioranzi & Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
Match report by Kyle McCarthy of the Boston Herald.
Match report by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match report by Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch.
New York 2-1 Kansas City - NY goals both by Juan Pablo Angel (1 via PK). KC goal by Jack Jewsbury.
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Match report by Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger.
Match report by Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald News.
Match report from the Kansas City Star.
Los Angeles 2-1 Toronto - LA goals by Landon Dovovan(PK) & Edson Buddle. Tor goal by Collin Samuel.
Match report by Billy Witz of the LA Daily News.
Match report by Grahame Jones of the LA Times.
-Sun Oct 14
Chivas 1-2 Colorado - Chiv goal by Orlando Perez. Colo goals by Ugo Ihemelu & Omar Cummings.
Match report by Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise.
Match report by Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times.
Match report by Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze.
Match report from the Rocky Mountain News.
Post-game notes by George Tanner at FC Rocky from the Rocky Mountain News.
-Mon Oct 15
Salt Lake v Houston - 8pm central on Direct Kick
Match preview from James Edward of the Deseret Morning News. Tonight is Eddie Pope's last home game before retiring.
Match preview by Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Match preview by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
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The Houston Chronicle says the Dynamo will be without midfielder Dwayne De Rosario tonight due to personal reasons. The team will also be without midfielder Ricardo Clark who is serving the 2nd of a 9 game suspension (but you already knew that).
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com with the Monday MLS Breakdown.
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I can't keep all this crap straight, but Steven Goff on his Soccer Insider blog has sorted out all the playoff qualifying possibilities.
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My MLS game watching notes from this weekend:
Here are two things you don't want to see from your team with one week to go before the playoffs start: 1-New England lost back to back games for the first time this season, 2-Chivas USA lost at home for the first time this season.
-I must say that Conor Casey looked fantastic for Colorado yesterday. If only that were the norm for him. Aaaaah, injuries.
-Why haven't the English wankers, I mean journalists, writing about the LA Galaxy 5 game winning streak? Cuz that would be a positive story, and we can't have that.
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Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star with a nice story on the life of TFC rookie Maurice Edu.
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Billy Witz of the LA Daily News answers the question: "Who are some of those guys wearing an LA Galaxy uniform?"
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Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps & Montreal Impact have formed an alliance (no, not to vote Edmonton out of the Country) to develop youth soccer in Canada.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune gets a head start on Blanco v Beckham.
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A typical American writer from the Chicago Tribune pulls off something amazing and turns in his love for all other sports, and puts all his chips on soccer. Wow.
-Arroyave has a great note about this writer, who he thought was a janitor in the Tribune office! From the Red Card blog.
Andrea Canales at Soccernet on LA's resurgence even without B******.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram on Dallas midfielder Juan Toja, and voting for MLS post-season awards.
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The Belfast Telegraph in Northern Ireland talks to Toronto coach Mo Johnston, who says he would like to coach in Britain some day.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle looks at the growth of MLS in just 12 short years, and looks back at soccer in America just 20 years ago.
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The Boston Globe gives us an inside look at the biggest New England Rev's supporters group, The Midnight Riders.
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ESPN Magazine calls Blanco the Anti-Beckham.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports with the nitty gritty on the race for the last MLS playoff spots.
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Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune looks back at the 2007 Real Salt Lake season and sees a fairly ugly sight.
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Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald writes about the Beckham impact of MLS this season.
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The Chicago Sun Times writes about the same thing. And that city just might even get to see him play a game.
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The Santa Clarita Valley California newspaper, The Signal, with a story on local lad Mike Caso who is on the LA Galaxy developmental roster this season.
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The San Jose Mercury News with some news on the building of a MLS stadium in that city.
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The Arizona Daily Star with an article on the passing away of Mr Soccer in Arizona.
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A little video roundup from Juan Toja Wig Night in Dallas last Thursday. Via FC Dallas Updates. (Best MLS promotion ever!)
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Switzerland v USA
-Wednesday October 17
Live on Fox Soccer Channel at 1:30pm central time.
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Many things coming in from Team USA as they prepare for Wednesdays match with Switzerland:
-The USA blog has a Q & A with Aalborg defender Dan Califf. And later Racing Santander midfielder Danny Szetela answers the questions of US Soccer viewers.
-Can any of you name all the USA players in this picture (left to right). I couldn't do it with out looking some guys up, and I study this stuff pretty seriously.
-US Soccer has loads of photos from training in Switzerland.
-Short introductory audio interviews with TEAM USA newcomers Maurice Edu, Robbie Findley, Steve Purdy, Tally Hall, Chris Seitz, Danny Szetela & Preston Zimmerman.
-And several videos from the camp including an interview with Fulham's Carlos Bocanegra that you must watch.
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Suliman Folarin of Soccernet does a Q & A with USA & Derby midfielder Benny Feilhaber.
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By the way, Benny Feilhaber last name pronunciation guide: FAIL-ha-ber
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated tells Freddy Adu that now is his chance, so don't screw it up.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet previews Swizz v USA.
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The USA has never beaten Switzerland.
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An amazing amount of Internationals starting this weekend-
Matches & Scores:
African Nations Cup Qualifier
-Fri Oct 12
Togo 0-2 Mali
Sierra Leone 0-2 Benin
-Sat Oct 13
Mauritania 2-1 Burundi
Egypt 1-0 Botswana
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Here then are all 16 teams that have qualified for next winters African Nations Cup tournament - January 20 to February 10, 2008:
Angola
Benin
Cameroon
Egypt
Guinea
Ivory Coast
Mali
Morocco
Namibia
Nigeria
Senegal
South Africa
Sudan
Tunisia
Zambia
Ghana - the hosts
-The draw for the group stages will take place in Accra this Friday Oct 19.
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CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
Uruguay 5-0 Bolivia
Argentina 2-0 Chile
Peru 0-0 Paraguay
-Sun Oct 14
Ecuador 0-1 Venezuela
Colombia 0-0 Brazil
-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 Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
New Zealand v Fiji - postponed, no details available
-Wed Oct 17
Fiji v New Zealand
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Euro 2008 Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
Poland 3-1 Kazakhstan
Belgium 0-0 Finland
Azerbaijan 0-2 Portugal
Armenia 0-0 Serbia
Italy 2-0 Georgia
Faroe Islands 0-6 France
Moldova 1-1 Turkey
Hungary 2-0 Malta
Slovakia 7-0 San Marino
Croatia 1-0 Israel
Iceland 2-4 Latvia
Slovenia 0-0 Albania
Romania 1-0 Netherlands
Scotland 3-1 Ukraine
England 3-0 Estonia
Belarus 0-1 Luxembourg
Liechtenstein 0-3 Sweden
Cyprus 3-1 Wales
Ireland Republic 0-0 Germany
Denmark 1-3 Spain
Greece 3-2 Bosnia-Herzegovina
-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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Germany has qualified for Euro 08. They are the first team in. Well, I guess technically they are third after co-hosts Switzerland and Austria.
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Dutch winger Ryan Babel overslept for the 2nd time was replaced in the Netherlands starting 11. Not cool dude.
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AFC World Cup Qualifier
-Thu Oct 11
Cambodia 0-1 Turkmenistan
-Sat Oct 13
Uzbekistan 9-0 Chinese Taipei
-Sun Oct 14
Madagascar 6-2 Comoros
-Mon Oct 15
Macau v Thailand
-Wed Oct 17
Kyrgyzstan v Jordan
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International Friendly
-Sat Oct 13
El Salvador 2-2 Costa Rica
Switzerland 3-1 Austria
-Sun Oct 14
Mexico 2-2 Nigeria
Honduras 1-0 Panama
Senegal 3-1 Guinea
-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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Mexico had to come from 2 goals down to tie 2-2 with Nigeria in Juarez. My main man Juan Carlos Cacho of Pachuca scored both Mexigols.
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Cotonsport Garoua are repeat winners of the Cameroon premier league!
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The Nigerian football league has been suspended while league officials, club officials and politicians beat each other over the head trying to gain the uppperhand. What a mess it has become. Sad.
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The Trinidad & Tobago with an article on former Dallas keeper Shaka Hislop and the official formation of the FPATT - Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
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Phil Ball at Soccernet draws some parallels between a U12 team and the Spanish national team.
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Raphael Honigstein of the Guardian says the Austrian team that will co-host next summers Euro Championship are simply horrible.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with former German striker and current team manager Oliver Bierhoff.
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Marvelous Moritz Volz of Fulham fame(?) with his latest column for the Times of London. This time he takes a minute to give FIFA prez Sepp Blatter a kick in the nether region.
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English TV program Panorama who uncovered player agent kickbacks in the world of soccer will air a new show at the end of this month about FIFA's bidding process for the 2018 World Cup. Will the bidding me legit and above the table? Odds are against that.
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The Observer gives up a look at the current state of Russian national team football.
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The Observer also gives us the good, the bad and the ugly of international club soccer ownership. Part 1 -and- Part 2 -and- Part 3.