Nice Dreamer News

Lacy J Banks, reporter for the Chicago Sun Times is my new idol. I was listening to the press conference with New England's Steve Nicol and Steve Ralston when I heard this voice. So silkily baritone, with a touch of the South. And way he phrased his sentences and chose his words, formal & very informal mixed together, made me leap with joy. I know I am being a little weird and mushy here, but I am not being sarcastic. This guy just asked questions a little differently then everyone else. For that he is my new idol. I gotta meet him.

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Chelsea America officially launches today.

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Another of my idols is Pele, but I am really disappointed in some comments he has been making to the press this week about MLS. He is telling anyone who will listen that MLS and the Galaxy sold us fans a bag of hot air when they signed David Beckham. Pele says we were told that we were getting a big time goal scorer, game changer, etc etc. He has no idea what he is talking about. That is just completely untrue. How many times did they emphasize to the mainstream media that he is a midfielder that is a great passer and taker of free kicks? Constantly. And even most of that mainstream media got it the first time. I never once heard or read a report by any American journalist that said DB was gonna light up the score board. Oh, and one other thing, in case you hadn't heard, the guy was injured for most of the season so he couldn't score many goals if he tried. I think Pele is still living in the 70's. Step off man, yer outta yer league on this one.


MLS Semifinals
-Thu Nov 8
New England v Chicago - 6:30pm central on ESPN2
Match preview by Nick Firchau of Chicago's daily Southtown.
Match preview by Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times.
Match preview by Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune.
Match preview by Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News
Match preview by Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe.
Match preview from Chicago's Daily Herald.
Pre-game notes by Arroyave on the Red Card blog.
-Sat Nov 10
Houston v Kansas City - 7:30pm central on FSC, FSE & HDNet
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The great George Vecsey of the New York Times with an article on New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph. Excellent reading.
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John Connolly of the Boston Herald with an article on New England defender Jay Heaps.
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Ryan Hunt of Sports Illustrated on Revs v Fire tonight.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet previews the Western Conf matchup.
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Steve Davis at MLSnet previews Houston v KC.
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Allen Hopkins of ESPN previews both the East and West matches. Video!
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle says the Houston's home field will be a big advantage v KC.
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Bobby McMahon of Fox Soccer Channel gives us some lineage on Ruud Gullit. Really good stuff here.
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Goal.com's Starting XI: Things Ruud Gullit Will Say on His First Day in L.A.
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Canada's National Post with a profile on the Galaxy pres Alexi Lalas. They call him "out there".
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And a photog caught a nice snap shot of Alexi last night too. (stolen from who knows where, but whoever you are, you are a genius)
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Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail writes about TFC's Rookie of the Year, Maurice Edu.
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Lots of news updates from the FC Dallas official blog, including info on their upcoming trip to Trinidad & Tobago to play 2 matches set up by former keeper Shaka Hislop.
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The Columbus Crew will play a friendly next Tuesday at Crew Stadium v UAdG Tecos of Mexico.
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I can't tell if this story in the San Jose Mercury News is serious or mocking. It's about the potential stadium for the New Quakes.
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Colombia again passes on calling Juan Pablo Angel in to the national team for the upcoming WC qualifiers. I wonder if his concussion had anything to do with that?
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North American Club Friendlies
-Nov 7
Vancouver Whitecaps 0-0 Los Angeles Galaxy
Match report from the Vancouver Sun.
Match report from the Vancouver Province.
-Sun Nov 11
Minnesota Thunder v Los Angeles Galaxy
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The Vancouver Province looks at how the Whitecaps can become a viable money making team, with lessons from the past.
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Copa Sudamericana - Semifinals
First Leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 7
Millonarios 2-3 America - Mill goals by Gerardo Bedoya & Johnathan Estrada. Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas(2) & German Villa.
-Thur Nov 8
Arsenal v River Plate
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UEFA Champions League - Matchday 4
-Tue Nov 6
Liverpool 8-0 Besiktas - goals by Peter Crouch(2), Yossi Benayoun(3), Ryan Babel(2) & Steven Gerrard(only 1).
Porto 2-1 Marseille Por - goals by Tarik Sektioui & Lisandro Lopez. Mars goal by Mamadou Niang.
Valencia 0-2 Rosenborg - goals both by Steffen Iversen.
Schalke 0-0 Chelsea
Lazio 2-1 Bremen - Laz goals both by Tommaso Rocchi. Brem goal by Diego(PK).
Olympiakos 0-0 Real Madrid
Celtic 1-0 Benfica - goal by Aiden McGeady.
Shakhtar 0-3 Milan - goals by Pippo Inzaghi(2) & Rikki Kaka.
-Wed Nov 7
Lyon 4-2 Stuttgart - Lyon goals by Hatem Ben Arfa, Kim Kallstrom & Juninho Pernambucano. Stug goals both by Mario Gomez.
Barcelona 2-0 Rangers - goals by Theirry Henry & Lionel Messi.
Manchester United 4-0 Dynamo Kyiv - goals by Gerard Pique, Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney & Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sporting 2-2 Roma - Spor goals both by Liedson. Roma goals by Marco Cassetti & David Pizzaro.
Internazionale 4-2 CSKA Moskva - Inter goals by Zlatan Ibrahimovic(2) & Esteban Cambiasso(2). CSKA goals by Jo & Vagner Love.
Fenerbahce 2-0 PSV - goals by Dirk Marcellis(OG) & Semih Senturk.
Steaua 0-2 Sevilla - goals both by Renato.
Slavia 0-0 Arsenal
-Here are the current group standings.
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Manchester United & Arsenal have become the first two teams to qualify for the knock out stages. And they have done it with two group stages matches still to play.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune reviews yesterdays CL matches, and raves about young Brazilian Jo. (Jo was quite good at the U20 World Cup last summer, but this is big step up.)
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UEFA Cup
Three Americans are playing matches today:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg V Anderlecht
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann at Rennes
-Tim Howard - Everton at Nurnberg
And here are the rest of the matches today:
Larissa v Zenit
Kobenhavn v Panathinaikos
Aberdeen v Lokomotiv Moskva
Mlada Boleslav v Villarreal
Fiorentina v Elfsborg
Dinamo Zagreb v Basel
Spartak Moskva v Leverkusen
Toulouse v Sparta
Bayern v Bolton
Aris v Crvena Zvezda
Hapoel Tel-Aviv v Tottenham
Galatasaray v Helsingborg
Austria Wien v Bordeaux
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Carlos Valderrama was given a 10 game suspension for waving money at a referee during a match by Atletico Junior where he is an assistant coach. He was also fined $5500 dollars. The team will have to play their next home game in an empty stadium after crowd trouble at the same game.
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Nemanja Vidic has signed a long term contract extension with Manchester United.
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Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian tell us about two minnows from Argentina that are having the run of the league this season - Lanus & Tigre.
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The Guardian joins the legion of other English Howling Tabloids in condemning England coach Steve McClaren's trip to LA last week to see David Beckham. Wow, they really have it in for this guy.
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Fired Tottenham boss Martin Jol has turned down the job of managing Ajax in hopes of becoming the next Holland coach.
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Adam Spangler at This Is American Soccer with the an ongoing feature on filmmaker Greg Hamilton and the soccer variation called Chinlone. In Part 1 we get some background on the sport/art and a Q & A with Hamilton. Part 2 is more of the Q & A. In Part 3 Hamilton himself writes about "The Mystic Ball", his movie about Chinlone. Awesome reading.