Crusadin' News

Houston in! Ching out? We will have a rematch of last years MLS Cup final with Houston joining New England in DC next Sunday, but Brian Ching left Saturdays semifinal after he said he "heard a pop" in his calf muscle and was removed from the game. That does not sound good. Stay tuned.

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The 12th MLS Cup will be New England v Houston. A rematch of last years title game. See you there.

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So what is the problem that prevents New England from selling many tickets to their games. They are very good yet people go in very small numbers. You can't even get 11,000 people for the league semi-finals? Disgraceful. Houston on the other hand sold out 2 games in a row with over 30,000, and the whole place decked out in orange. What a beautiful sight to behold. Shame on you New England, you should be embarrassed. And we all thought Boston was sports town. I guess not.

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Landon Donovan strained a calf muscle v Minnesota yesterday which may hurt his chances of playing with the USA v South Africa on Saturday.

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In other USA news, Eddie Lewis has been dropped from the team (reason unknown) while Heath Pearce & Jonathan Spector have been added to the roster.

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In case you missed it over the weekend - Tomorrow MLS will officially announce Seattle as the 15th team in league. (Technically speaking they are the 18th team with two being elimidated and one being relocated & then the original being revived. Make sense? Don't worry about it.)

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A whisper in my ear from St Louis today says that they too will be announced this week as an expansion team for 2009. Whoooo Hoooo! Let's see if it comes true or not.


MLS Semifinals
New England 1-0 Chicago - goal by Taylor Twellman
Houston 2-0 Kansas City - goals by Nate Jaqua & Dwayne De Rosario
Match report by Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.
Match report by Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star.
Match report by Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet.
Post-game notes by Fallas.
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The Houston Chronicle with a story on Dynamo forward Nate Jaqua who feels pretty damn happy to have ended up on this team this season.
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Glenn Davis also at the Chron ponders the arrival of Ruud Gullit in Los Angeles.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with a story on New England rookie Wells Thompson who has worked his way into the teams first 11 and seems to be getting better with each match he plays.
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Dell'apa also begins the parade of MLS Cup previews on the Rev's.
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Steve Davis at MLSnet with an article on the continuous winning ways of both New England & Houston.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated has nothing but good things to say about the NE v Hou rematch, but then again he is a TV commentator for NE games, so what else is he gonna say. Lalas also comments on the 100th forearm/elbow that Nate Jaqua has thrown in his career, and feels NJ should be punished with a suspension. I agree fully on that one.
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Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with the philosophy behind the year-in-year-out success of both Houston & New England.
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WOW!! Last season Toronto FC cut off season ticket sales at 14,000 for their 20,000 seat stadium. This season they upped the number to 16,000, and then announced today that they are SOLD OUT! That is simply amazing. A huge congrats to those fans of TFC, you are setting the standard very high.
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Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times with a recap on the Chicago Fire season.
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Former Tampa Bay, San Jose, DC & Columbus midfielder Devin Barclay is on the Ohio State football team as their 3rd string placekicker!
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports wonders if you hate the LA Galaxy? Well, they like it that way.
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Metrofanatic on the man who did not save New York's wretched pro soccer team.
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North American Club Friendlies
-Sun Nov 11
Minnesota Thunder 1-1 Los Angeles Galaxy - Galaxy win Copa Minnesota 3-2 on PK's. - in Minneapolis at the Metrodome.
Match report from the Minnesota Thunder.
-Tue Nov 13
Columbus v UAdG Tecos - at Crew Stadium.
-Sat Nov 17
Guadalajara Chivas v Chivas USA - Benefit match for the victims of the Tabasco flood.
-Fri Nov 30
TT Pro League Foreign All-Stars v FC Dallas - the Shaka Hislop Tribute Cup in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
-Sun Dec 2
TT Pro League Local All-Stars v FC Dallas - the Shaka Hislop Tribute Cup in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago.
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The Minneapolis Star Tribune with an article on the Beckham pop star effect on last nights game.
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The St Paul Pioneer Press with their version of the same.
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Attendance for MN v LA was announced at just over 20,000. And that's about what it looked like too. The lower bowl was about 2/3 full, and the upper deck had a few stragglers sitting there.
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The Minnesota Thunder team got absolutely no love at all from either Twin Ciites daily newspaper. Not a single player was mentioned in those two article. You guys who run these newspapers are pathetic. No wonder you're going down the drain. Dinosaurs!
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Copa Sudamericana - Semifinals
Second Leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Nov 13
America v Millonarios (3-2)
-Wed Nov 14
River Plate v Arsenal (0-0)
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Americans in Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - was on the bench but did not get to play in his teams 6-1 asskicking of Boavista.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - his team had the weekend off.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - host Monchengladbach today.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - went the distance at left back but fouled Peter Crouch outside the box and was undeservedly called for a Penalty. They lost 2-0 at Liverpool.
-Nat Borchers - Odd Grenland - season has ended.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - started in midfield and scored the games only goal in the 2nd half for his team to win 0-1 at Vitesse. Excellent.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - went the full 90 and got a 1-2 road win at Nordsjaelland.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played the whole match but lost 1-0 at Hertha.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - play Arsenal at home today.
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - season has ended.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - out injured
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and played 69 good minutes, but his team folded after he went off and lost 2-0 at Liverpool.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 0-5 loss to West Ham.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played the entire game as usual, but lost 2-0 at Man United.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - play Arsenal at home today.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went 90 minutes in goal and drew 1-1 at Chelsea. Not bad at all.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - got the start for a change, went all 90 and scored the winner in a 2-0 victory over Augsburg.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started but has the dubious honor of scoring an own goal in the 55th minute (the initial shot was taken by fellow American Jonathan Spector), then being subbed off 3 minutes later, while the team went on to lose 0-5 at home to West Ham.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played the 90 and won 1-0 over Lokeren.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - came on as a 86th minute sub in his teams 3-2 win over Cottbus.
-Steve Purdy - 1860 Munich - host Monchengladbach today.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - played the whole match and enjoyed a 5-0 pasting of Southampton.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - got a full 90 minutes in midfield, took a shot that became an Eddie Lewis own goal and his team romped to a 0-5 win at awful Derby County.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played 90 minutes of a 4-1 win over Osnabruck.
-Brian West - Fredrikstad - season has ended
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - host Monchengladbach today.
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USA team blog - checking in from Johannesburg this week.
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Jozy Altidore writing for the New York Times Goal blog about his first call up to Team USA.
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Big Euro club matches played this weekend:
-Sat Nov 10
Schalke 1-1 Hamburg - the seemingly only 2 contenders to Bayern for the crown.
Stuttgart 3-1 Bayern Munich - last years champs, who look like this years chumps, try to reign in the perennial power.
Werder Bremen 4-0 Karlsruhe - #3 (contenders?) v #4 (pretenders?).
Sunderland 1-1 Newcastle - the old fashioned Tyne-Wear derby.
-Sun Nov 11
Villarreal 3-2 Sevilla - two pretenders to the Spanish thrown trying to prove their worthiness.
Feyenoord 2-2 Ajax - old old rivals always play good matches against each other.
PSV 1-1 AZ Alkmaar - the top dogs v a challenger for the past few years.
Panathinaikos 2-1 AEK - a big match every year in Greece.
Birmingham City 2-1 Aston Villa - the Birmingham derby. (not quite as much fun as when the cities 3rd team, West Bromich Albion were in the top league two and we got 6 derbies in one season)
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The Top 5 Teams in Europe’s Top 4 Leagues:
-Premiership
30 Manchester United
27 Arsenal
26 Manchester City
25 Chelsea
24 Liverpool
-La Liga
28 Real Madrid
27 Villareal
24 Barcelona
24 Valencia
21 Atletico Madrid
-Serie A
25 Inter Milan
23 Fiorentina
22 Juventus
22 Roma
22 Udinese
-Bundesliga
28 Bayern Munich
27 Werder Bremen
27 Hamburg
23 Karlsruhe
21 Bayer Leverkusen
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Russian Premier League
-Final weekend of the season
61 Zenit St Petersburg
59 Spartak Moscow
-Matches & Scores:
Saturn Moscow 0-1 Zenit
Spartak 2-1 Dinamo
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Zenit of St Petersburg have won the Russian Championship! It is their first crown since 1984.
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Pohang Steelers have won the South Korean K-League championship.
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Mexican Premiera Playoffs
The 10 teams are now all set, with the bottom 4 playing off first for 2 spots to join the top 6.
First leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 14
Pachuca v Cruz Azul
-Thu Nov 15
Morelia v America
Second leg Matches & Scores:
-Sat Nov 17
Cruz Azul v Pachuca
-Sun Nov 18
America v Morelia
-The 6 teams with byes are: Santos Laguna, Toluca, Atlante, Guadalajara, San Luis & UNAM.
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The Guardian with their roundup of writers from around Europe:
-Sid Lowe on La Liga: Suddenly Robinho looks like the New Pele ... again
-Raphael Honigstein on die Bundesliga: Gomez's low blow has Hitzfeld on the ropes
-Paolo Bandini on Serie A: Fan tragedy sends the fight against Ultras back to square one
-Steven Well on braindead British "sports journalists", and raving about David Zirin: It's time the dancing monkeys of journalism found their own tune
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One thing I have to say about Steven Wells above linked article: When did USA player DaMarcus Beasley comment negatively on the US governments handling of Hurricane Katrina? I have never read one word like this from DMB. Maybe Swells got a 1 on 1 that we don't know about. But I would challenge him to produce the article in which Beasley is quoted. Come on Swells, I know yer reading this.
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Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu will be out a month with a thigh muscle strain.
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Football Italia with their winner and losers Serie A weekend roundup.
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More awful hellishness broke in Italy this weekend with a cop shooting a Lazio fan during a fight with Juve fans. The fight didn't even take place at the game. The league met today and decided to postpone lower division games next weekend while Serie A is on international break, then reassess the situation to see about further postponement. Last year after a policeman was killed the league was shut down for a couple of weeks.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune: Italy Copes Again With Death & Violence.
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There is a rumor going around Italy that AS Roma are possibly going to bought by an American.
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Brazil beat Mexico 8-2 to win the Beach World Cup.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with long time Italy and Milan star Paolo Maldini.
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Phil Ball at Soccernet on Valencia & Koeman, Villreal & Pellegrini and the rest of La Liga.
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The Reuters Soccer blog with a story on Paul LeGuen, the man who brought Lyon to power on his latest challenge - the reemergence of Paris St Germain.
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Reuters also has a story on the country of Mozambique which is going to try to cash in the South African World Cup due to the proximity and qualities.
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Lastly, have you noticed how Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster has the same brutal haircut as that really nasty bad guy, Anton Chigurh, in the new Cohen brothers film No Country For Old Men.