Can You Read Me That Card News

US Soccer has named their 4 Player of the Year Awards:
-Clint Dempsey - Men's Player Of The Year
-Michael Bradley - Young Men's Player Of The Year
-Abby Waumbach - Women's Player Of The Year
-Lauren Cheney - Young Women's Player Of The Year


FC Dallas Updates has a Q & A with their own forward Kenny Cooper who is England training with his old club Manchester United (you may have heard of them).
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A rumor that has appeared two days in a row says Dallas may be chasing after Mexico's world class cheap-shot Duilio Davino from Club America.
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The Delco Times of the Philadelphia area with an editorial on the importance of securing a MLS team and stadium in their city.
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The Telegraph of England has an interview with new LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit. They mostly just talk about England.
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MLSnet has a season review of the New England Revolution. And then they ask 5 Big Questions for next season.
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Metrofanatic is reporting that Red Bulls midfielder Markus Schopp has retired. This is coming from an Austrian newspaper. After showing he still had something left in the tank during 2006, Schopp was 100% useless to the Red Bulls last season.
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And Metro is also spreading the rumor that recently retired Chris Armas just might, maybe, who knows, could possibly be, looking for a chance to become a NYRB assistant coach. "Very Interesting" said Colonel Klink!
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New York forward target="new" ONCLICK="out=false"Jozy Altidore checks in with a little Holiday Cheer for all of us via the New York Times Goal blog. He also writes about going to China and the new Red Bulls coach.
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Clemente Lisi at the US Soccer Players Assoc looks at some American players who might be a shot with Team USA in 08.
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There's a new LA supporters group - The Angel City Brigade.
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The Beaumont Enterprise of Texas talks to Houston Dynamo Pres Oliver Luck. Fills in some good background on Luck.
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The Toronto Star feels that MLS's foreign player rules are useless and need to go. The author, Cathal Kelly, again proves his ignorance of the history of soccer in North America. Maybe someday this quota can be dropped, but for now its great and has been one of several levy's put in place to keep MLS from becoming the NASL. History is good to know. (actually I am not sure why I linked to this at all - the who wrote it is a moron)
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Canada's National Post with a story on the chances of Maurice Edu leaving Toronto for the Premiership.
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Real Salt Lake has sent midfielder Attiba Harris to Chivas USA in exchange for a 3rd round draft pick. Good deal for RSL!
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Valencia's Spanish goalkeeper Santiago Canizares is rumored to be interested in coming to MLS in January. Is he willing to play for about $75,000? Cuz that is the most he could probably get. Too many foreign keepers have shown up, got paid waaaaaaay to much and ended up being worse than what we already have. Walter Zenga, Ronald Wattereus, Shaka Hislop, etc etc etc (too many to list really).
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Soccernet has begun their annual pre-Superdraft scouting reports. Buzz Carrick (of 3rd Degree fame) on the goalkeepers.
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Pat Walsh at Goal.com wants to know who has the easier job - Bob Bradley or Fabio Capello?
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A few words from the new Minnesota Thunder owner Dean Johnston, from the St Paul City Hall Scoop blog. Download or listen here.
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12 teams will play off for the final 6 spots in next years Copa Libertadores. These matches will be played beginning Jan 30. Get ready cuz here it comes:
Lanus v Olmedo
Cruzeiro v Cerro Porteno
Arsenal v Mineros de Guayana
Mexico Qualifier v Bolivia Qualifier
Montevideo Wanderers v Cienciano
Chico v Audax Italiano
-Here are the details.
-The Group Stage will then begin Feb 13.
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UEFA Cup - Matchday 5 - Final round of Group play today and tomorrow.
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 19
Zurich 0-5 Bayer Leverkusen
Toulouse 2-1 Spartak Moskva
Braga 2-0 Crvena Zvezda
Bayern Munich 6-0 Aris
Getafe 2-1 Anderlecht
Hapoel Tel-Aviv 1-3 Aalborg
Panionios 2-3 Bordeaux
Galatasaray 0-0 Austria Wien
-Thu Dec 20
AZ Alkmaar 2-3 Everton
Larissa 1-3 Nurnberg
Atletico Madrid 2-1 Panathinaikos
Aberdeen 4-0 Kobenhavn
AEK Athens 1-2 Villarreal
Fiorentina 2-1 Mlada Boleslav
Hamburger 1-1 Basel
Rennes 1-1 Dinamo Zagreb
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UEFA Cup Group Standings.
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Three Americans are playing matches in the UEFA Cup:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - went the distance and won 1-3 at Hapoel Tel-Aviv, but have been eliminated from advancing to the knock-out stages.
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - had a bye for this matchday and they were already been eliminated from advancing to the knock-out stage.
-Tim Howard - Everton - at AZ Alkmaar on Thursday.

English League Cup
Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 12
West Ham 1-2 Everton
-Tue Dec 18
Blackburn 2-3 Arsenal
Manchester City 0-2 Tottenham
-Wed Dec 19
Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool

Spanish Copa del Rey - Fifth Round
-Wed Dec 19
Alicante 1-1 Real Madrid
Real Union 1-2 Valencia
Espanyol 1-1 Deportivo La Caruna

Italian TIM Cup
-Wed Dec 19
Lazio 2-1 Napoli
Reggina 1-4 Inter
Torino 3-1 Roma
Udinese 0-0 Palermo
-Thu Dec 20
Milan v Catania

Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated looks at the move of Mexican Nery Castillo heading to Manchester City.

Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated on his Throw-Ins blog is using his San Jose Earthquakes insider connections to learn that the teams part owner John Fisher has bought a stake in Celtic. Yes, Celtic. Good stuff Johan.

Inter have completed a deal with Sao Paulo for their deeply troubled forward Adriano to go home and play on a loan deal. Let's hope he gets it together.

The Guardian bring in 3 "experts" to discuss the problems with the England national team and other topics in today’s English game. The 3 are: David Pleat, Leon Angel & Nigel Worthington. (thanks to George H & BQ for this one)

Tony Francis at the Telegraph in England with an article about the strong and steady Basque heritage of Athletic Bilbao in La Liga.

Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian looks at the embodiment of problems in Russian football.

Finally, the draw for the Champions League Knockout stages is tomorrow - Fri Dec 21.