Brunch At Krakatoa News

Ball Meets Face


Reuters has more with MLS honcho Don Garber today. This time they talk about cell phone & wireless device content.
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More than a handful of MLS players have been left off their teams roster and will be fair game for other teams in the league to snap up today in yet another draft. The 2 most prominent names on that list are: Ramon Nunez - Chivas USA & Carlos Pavon - LA.
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Frank Giase of the Newark Star Ledger gives us an update on Red Bull Park. Are they really gonna start building the thing next week? That is the word, but then again so is "grease".
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The Toronto Star checks in on what TFC coach Mo Johnston is up to right now.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle on why the Dynamo are great off the field as well as on.
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The San Jose Mercury with a report on SJ coach Frank Yallop hiring his first assistant coach - his former player Ian Russell.
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Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated writes that San Jose is also trying to lure 3 American's home from Europe: Ramiro Corrales, Dan Califf & Kamani Hill.
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Updates from FC Dallas on their trip to Trinidad & Tobago.
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MLSnet reviews the past season of the Colorado Rapids. And asks 5 big questions for next season.
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And MLSnet reviews the past season of the Chicago Fire. And asks 5 big questions for next season.
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The Washington Post says that DC United are looking in Prince George's County at 2 possible sites for their new stadium. In this article it states that team owner Victor MacFarlane said they are losing $10 million a season.
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MLS Off-season Friendlies
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Nov 29
Fresno Fuego v Chivas USA
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The USL First Division will play with 11 teams this season, and alter some of their league formats. All the details here.
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Lots more upsets last night in the NCAA Championship tournament. The top seeded team Boston College were knocked out. Here is the full bracket. Third round games will happen this weekend.
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The Glasgow Evening Standard reports that DaMarcus Beasley's knee injury is bad. They speculate that it's real bad. but let's wait for confirmation on this one.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet reviews USA coach Bob Bradley's first year in charge.
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Andrew Wiebe of the Daily Kansan looks ahead at the qualifying path to the 2010 World Cup for the USA.
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American Soccer Daily with an article on Kamani Hill who is no longer wanted by Wolfsburg and will need to find a new home in the January transfer window. He says he does not want to play in MLS right now.
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ASD also talks to Benny Feilhaber about Derby's new manager Paul Jewell.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post with his as usual excellent notes.
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USA U20 team is in Argentina for 3 games. But their first game got canceled. So they set up another one with Boca Juniors U20’s. The tied 1-1. Amobi Okugo got the USA goal.
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Nov 26
Boca Juniors 1-1 USA
-Thu Nov 28
Argentina v USA
-Sat Dec 1
Uruguay v USA
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The FIFA Club World Cup starts December 7 and ends on the 16th in Japan. Much more on this next week. Here are the teams: Etoile Sportive du Sahel, Urawa Red Diamonds, AC Milan, Pachuca & Boca Juniors. Sepahan & Waitakere United will start the tournament. Here is the bracket.
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Champions League - Matchday 5
-Tue Nov 27
#Stuttgart 3-2 Rangers - Stut goals by Cacau, Pavel Pardo & Ciprian Marica. Ran goals by Charlie Adam & Barry Ferguson.
Lyon 2-2 *Barcelona - Lyon goals both by Juninho Pernambucano (1 via PK). Barc goals by Andres Iniesta & Lionel Messi(PK).
#Dynamo Kyiv 1-4 *Roma - Dyn goal by Ismael Bangoura. Roma goals by Christian Panucci, Ludovic Giuly & 2 by Mirko Vucinic.
*Manchester United 2-1 #Sporting - Man U goals by Carlos Tevez & Cristiano Ronaldo. Spor goal by Abel.
#CSKA Moskva 0-1 PSV Eindhoven - goal by Jefferson Farfan.
*Inter Milan 3-0 Fenerbahce - goal by Julio Cruz, Zlatan Ibrahimovic & Luis Antonio Jimenez.
*Sevilla 3-1 *Arsenal - Sev goals by Seydou Keita, Luis Fabiano & Frederic Kanoute(PK). Arse goal by Eduardo da Silva.
#Steaua Bucuresti 1-1 #Slavia Praha - Stea goal by Valentin Badea. Slav goal by Zdenek Senkerik.
-Wed Nov 28
Besiktas 2-1 Marseille - Bes goals by Rodrigo Tello & Bobo. Mars goal by Taye Taiwo.
Liverpool 4-1 Porto - Liv goals by Fernando Torres(2), Steven Gerrard(pk) & Peter Crouch.
Rosenborg 0-4 *Chelsea - Chel goals by Didier Drogba(2), Alex & Joe Cole.
Valencia 0-0 Schalke
Werder Bremen 3-2 Real Madrid - Brem goals by Markus Rosenborg, Boubacar Sanogo & Aaron Hunt. Mad goals by Robinho & Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
Lazio 1-2 Olympiakos - Laz goal by Goran Pandev. Oly goal by Luciano Galletti & Darko Kovacevic.
#Benfica 1-1 *Milan - Ben goal by Maxi Pereira. Mil goal by Andrea Pirlo.
Celtic 2-1 Shakhtar Donetsk - Cel goals by Jiri Jarosik & Massimo Donati. Shak goal by Brandao.
*Advanced
#Elimidated
-Chelsea & Milan join Barcelona, Roma, Inter, Sevilla, Man U & Arsenal as the teams qualified for the knock out stages. The remaining 8 spots are still up for grabs.
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CL Group Standings.
-Groups A & C will be the most exciting on Matchday 6 as all 4 teams are capable of advancing on the last day! Very cool.
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Two Americans are playing matches in the Champions League:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came off the bench very late to try and help steal the win, but only played 2+ minutes in the 1-1 draw. Unfortunately this one point means that his team has been eliminated from the CL.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - started and put in the corner for his teams second goal, but was injured in the 49th minute and replaced as they lost 3-2 at Stuttgart.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune recaps yesterdays CL matches, and focuses on Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez's feud with the team owners.
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Mexican Premiera Playoffs
-Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 28
Guadalajara 1-0 Atlante - goal by Ramon Morales.
-Thu Nov 29
UNAM Pumas v Santos Laguna - 9pm central on Galavision
-Sat Dec 1
Atlante v Guadalajara - 9pm central on TeleFutura
-Sun Dec 2
Santos Laguna v UNAM Pumas - 5pm central on Azteca America
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Argentine Apertura
Now with 1 game left in the season, it's down to two teams battling for the title, and it will end on Saturday:
37 Lanus
34 Tigre
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 28
Tigre 2-1 Boca Juniors
Lanus 4-0 Gimnasia
-Sat Dec 2
Boca Juniors v Lanus
Argentinos Juniors v Tigre
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UEFA Cup - Matchday 3
-Thu Nov 29
Zenit v Nurnberg
AZ Alkmaar v Larissa
Lokomotiv Moskva v Kobenhavn
Atletico Madrid v Aberdeen
Elfsborg v Mlad Boleslav
AEK v Fiorentina
Hamburg v Rennes
Brann v Dinamo Zagreb
Sparta Praha v Spartak Moskva
Zurich v Toulouse
Braga v Bayern Munich
Bolton v Aris
Getafe v Hapoel Tel-Aviv
Tottenham v Aalborg
Panionios v Galatasaray
Helsingborg v Austria Wien
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Three Americans are playing matches in the UEFA Cup:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - at Tottenham
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - v Dinamo Zagreb
-Tim Howard - team has this round off.
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Four more Americans played league matches in England & Germany last night:
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - back from the knee injury, he played all 90 minutes but they lost 1-2 at home to Burnley.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played as usual in goal, but something must have gone dramatically wrong as they lost 0-4 at home to Aston Villa. Wow.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - went the full 90 and won 1-0 over Barnsley.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - got the usual start and played the whole of a 0-0 road draw at Kaiserslautern.
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The Guardian is running a series of photo-shopped images of what the England players will be doing next summer when the rest of the best in Europe will be playing in the Euro championship. For whatever reason this image, and especially Wayne Rooney had me laughing very very hard.
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The Guardian also has the story on the arrest of Portsmouth coach Harry Rednapp for financial corruption ie. under the table payoffs to agents & players for contracts. Happy Harry says he is completely innocent. They also arrested the teams former American owner Milan Mandaric, and current chief executive Peter Storrie.
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Interesting note: There were more Scots than English playing in the Champions League this week.
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World Soccer has an article of the power & prestige of AC Milan under owner Silvio Berlusconi. Via Sports Illustrated.
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Juvenutus' patron, Lapo Elkann, has ripped Inter, saying their winning the Serie A title last year was a fake. This coming from a man who's team has been convicted of buying league titles. Hahahahahahahahaha.
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The New York Times Goal blog with an article on Ronaldo's (and his new hairdo) return to the AC Milan lineup. But reports from Italy this morning say he may have injured a calf muscle now.
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France Football magazine's Ballon d'Or will be handed out on Sunday. This is the award for European Footballer Of The Year. It's no secret that Rikki Kaka of Milan will be named the winner. I am OK with that, even though he is second or third best behind Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi, Kaka is still very special.
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Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated with the World Club Soccer Power Rankings. I am happy about #1, but I disagree. I say it's the Arse.
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And finally today, Mike Collett of Reuters says that we should expect something "spectacular" awaiting us in South Africa for the WC2010. I can't wait.