Face Forward News

I don't know if there is any truth to this whatsoever, but a commenter said that Christine Daniels of the LA Times was talking trash about du Nord. So Christine, if you are reading this, just know that du Nord has eyes and ears everywhere. Go ahead and keep talking trash. Hate me. Feel free. You know you wanna. But deep down yer just jealous! Hahahahahaha. Ok enough of that. I keeeeed. Rock on.

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Placido Domingo will sing the national anthem at the MLS Cup final.

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Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster talks about Valencia team president Juan Soler: "(I would) love a job like yours where you get paid for insulting people, despite not having a clue what you're talking about."


MLS Playoffs
Second Leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Thu Nov 1
DC v Chicago (0-1) - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
Match preview by Steven Goff of the Washington Post.
Match preview by Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times.
Match preview by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match preview by Pat Walsh of Goal.com
Match preview by
Match preview from Chicago's Daily Herald.
Match preview by Ives Galarcep at Soccernet.
Pre-game notes by Goff at the Soccer Insider.
-Fri Nov 2
Houston v Dallas (0-1) - 7:30pm central on Direct Kick
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune and Nick Firchau of Chicago's Daily Southtown both have stories on the Fire's Blanco who has become MLS defenders favorite "punching bag". Hahahahaha.
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The Sporting Life in England says Pablo Wanchope likes his new team in Chicago.
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The Washington Times says DC forward Jaime Moreno is ready to rumble.
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Dave Lifton at the US Soccer Players Assoc has a Q & A with Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe on New England defender extraordinaire Michael Parkhurst.
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Beau Dure at USA Today on New England's long running quest for the Cup.
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Marc Connolly at Goal.com has a Q & A with New England forward Pat Noonan.
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Metrofanatic says that New England's Gillette Stadium is not kind to the New York Red Bulls.
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Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News with a story on Dallas' Adrian Serioux & Houston's Dwayne De Rosario playing on the same youth club team in Canada, and other FCD notes.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle says Dallas are ready for the Dynamo.
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Fallas also writes about the Houston fans, and a few other pre-game notes.
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Fallas is reporting that since Houston midfielder Ricardo Clark is suspended for the rest of this season he has decided to have surgery on his right knee so he is ready for next season 100%.
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Michael Lewis at Big Apple Soccer with 2 articles, the first saying errors could very well decide the Red Bulls v Revolution series, and the second on the lack of playing time for Clint Mathis.
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Ivan Orozco of the LA Daily News with a story on Chivas USA keeper Brad Guzan who was named the leagues keeper of the year yesterday.
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Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise writes about El Guzano too. With a few Chivas v KC playoff notes thrown in to boot.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet says the 4 lower seeds in the MLS playoffs all have a shot at the upset.
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Greg Lalas of Goal.com uses his 3-5-2 column to preview this weekends second leg matches.
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Jack Bell at the New York Times Goal blog examines the MLS playoff structure.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports does not like the MLS playoff structure, and offers some suggestions on how to change it.
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A post over at Big Soccer says this is probably the prototype for next seasons Columbus Crew shirt. UGLY! (pick posted by Cleazer - thank you)
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The Daily Record in New Jersey reports that the Red Bulls got Hanover city approval to move forward with building their practice facility and team offices.
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A San Jose Mercury News editorial backs a plan to help the Earthquakes build a new stadium in SJ.
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The Santa Clara newspaper talks to Quakes Pres Michael Crowley about playing next season at Buck Shaw Stadium.
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US Youth Soccer has hired former USA U17 & Real Salt Lake head coach John Ellinger as their Technical Director.
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The USA U18 team at the Limoges tournament in France lost their second consecutive game yesterday 3-1 to Turkey. Shane Cooke got the lone USA goal. The worse news is that the USA played up a man for 74 minutes and could not get it done.
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Dylan Butler of the Queens New York newspaper The Times Ledger says that US Soccer's hiring of Wilmer Cabrera was a very good move.
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My Minnesota Thunder have announced their roster for the Nov 11 game v Los Angeles (some guest players are included):
G:
Nic Platter
Lance Friesz (LA Galaxy)
D:
Kenney Bertz (Rochester Rhinos)
Alejandro De La Mora
Kevin Friedland
David Hayes (Atlanta Silverbacks)
Brian Pederson
Derek Smith
M:
Hugo Alcarez-Cuellar (Seattle Sounders)
Jeremiah Bass
Sasha Gotsmanov
Craig Mallace
Dayton O’Brien (Atlanta Silverbacks)
Dale Weiler
F:
Leo Gibson
Nathan Knox (Seattle Sounders)
Sebastien Le Toux (Seattle Sounders)
Johnny Menyongar (Rochester Rhinos)
Aaron Paye
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Copa Sudamericana
Semifinals
River Plate v Arsenal still waiting for game dates.
Millonarios v America - First leg Nov 7. Return on Nov 13.
-Thanks to Nick for letting me know that the tournament rules say 2 teams from the same country MUST play each other in the semi-finals to try and spread the continental wealth. So River and Arse must play now cuz they are both in Argentina.
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English League Cup
Fourth Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 31
Bolton 0-1 Manchester City
Chelsea 4-3 Leicester
Liverpool 2-1 Cardiff
Luton 0-1 Everton
Portsmouth 1-2 Blackburn
Sheffield United 0-3 Arsenal
Tottenham 2-0 Blackpool
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Americans in ELC games:
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - went 90 and got a 1-2 road win to advance.
-Tim Howard - Everton - was rested, while his team won 0-1 at Luton.
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German DFB Cup
2nd Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 31
Rot-Weiss Essen 2-1 Kaiserslautern
Stuttgart 3-2 Paderborn
Hamburg 3-1 Freiburg
Werder Bremen 4-0 Duisburg
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Koblenz 1-2 Arminia Bielefeld
Carl Zeiss Jena 2-2 Nurnberg - tied 2-2, Carl Zeiss adv 5-4 on PKs.
Bayern Munich 3-1 Monchengladbach
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French Coupe De La Ligue
1st Knock-out Round Matches & Scores:
-Wed Oct 31
Monaco 1-2 Lens
Rennes 0-2 Valenciennes
Paris St Germaine 2-0 Montpellier
Caen 1-3 Lyon
-Thu Nov 1
Niort v Le Mans
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A couple other Americans in midweek Euro club action:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - got the start in the league cup second leg match, went 85 minutes and scored on a PK in the first half, but they lost 2-1 to Vitoria Setubal, and were elimidated 3-2 on aggregate.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - played 90 in the league cup as they beat Motherwell 2-0.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - started, played 90, and scored a late goal to no avail as they lost 3-1 at Ajax in the KNVB Cup.
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - started but only went 45 of the 120 minute match and lost 5-4 on PK's.
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Europe has some big mid-week league games too:
Fiorentina 1-0 Napoli - two teams trying and succeeding in staying close to the league leaders in Italy.
Roma 3-2 Lazio - the Rome derby
Valencia 1-5 Real Madrid - Valencia will have a new coach and want to stay in the race.
Atletico Madrid 4-3 Sevilla - I would love to see some Halloween futbol with two big goal scoring teams like this.
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The top 5 teams in each of the worlds top 4 leagues:
-Premiership
26 Arsenal
26 Manchester United
22 Manchester City
21 Chelsea
21 Blackburn
-La Liga
25 Real Madrid
21 Villareal
20 Barcelona
20 Atletico Mardid
18 Valencia
-Serie A
24 Inter Milan
21 Roma
20 Juventus
20 Fiorentina
18 Udinese
-Bundesliga
27 Bayern Munich
23 Hamburg
21 Werder Bremen
20 Karlsruhe
18 Schalke & Hannover
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The rumor in Mexico has Club America goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa moving with Manchester United. That would be huge. I like that guy.
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Toluca & Atlante are the first 2 of 10 teams to qualify for the Mexican league playoffs.
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A doctor at the Warwich Business school did a study on coaching tenure and turnover in England over a 10 or so year span. Some of the results are very interesting, especially if you are a stats and numbers junky. (thanks to BQ for this one)
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World famous Colombian midfielder kinda made a fool of himself at a game recently where he accused the referee of taking money by standing on the sideline and waving a 50,000 peso note at the ref. He was sent off.
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Paulo Bandini at the Guardian rounds up yesterdays Serie A matches and tells us about Roma forward Mirko Vucinic. (Is MV the real deal?)
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An assistant coach from Italian club Lecce was killed at training yesterday when he was hit by lightning. Oh that’s harsh.
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Fans gathered at Sampdoria's practice facility today and heckled the team after they lost 1-5 to Milan yesterday. The team and coaching staff then talked to the fans. Cool of them to do that.
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Adriano is again making a mess for himself at Inter when he left the stadium before yesterday's game when he found out he was not in the 18 man roster. He seems like a spoiled punk.
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Sid Lowe of the Guardian enjoys the suffering of Valencia president Juan Soler as his team gets destroyed 1-5 at home by Real Madrid, and a roundup of yesterdays other La Liga matches.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune writes about 2 players who have tough decisions to make about their careers - Jaap Stam of Ajax, and Ivan Klasnic of Werder Bremen.
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Sao Paulo beat America-Natal 3-0 in Brazil last night and grabbed their 2nd straight title. Congrats dudes.
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Looks like just-fired Tottenham manager Martin Jol is headed back to Holland to coach PSV who just lost their coach Ronald Koeman to Valencia. If Koeman had gone to Spain to coach Sevilla we would have had a perfect triangle cuz the Sevilla coach Juande Ramos has taken the empty Jol spot at Tottenham. So close.
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Jonah Freedman at Sports Illustrated with the latest World Club Power Rankings.