From The Desk Of Nick "da Man" Mann News

Arsenal de Sarandi of Argentina are the 2007 Copa Sudamericana Champions! (see details below)

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The Mexican Premiera Apertura Final starts tonight. Pumas v Atlante! (see details below)

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Didier Drogba could be down and out. (see details at the very end)


Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com is reporting that Toronto coach Mo Johnston is going to move into a General managers role and out of the coaching spot, and he has been courting both New England head coach Steve Nicol and assistant Paul Mariner as a replacement. Nicol has said no. Now it's Mariners shot. While all this has been going on, beneath the radar Toronto parted company with assistant coach Bob Gansler.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail says Johnston WILL still be on the sidelines next season, but a replacement is being sought for Gansler's role. And Johnston is quoted as completely denying any connection to Mariner.
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The KC Star with an article about another snag in the Kansas City Wizards stadium building process.
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MLSnet with a year end review of Chivas USA. And then asks the Five Big Questions for next season.
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Goal.com does a lite & fluffy Q & A with Kansas City defender Nick Garcia.
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MLS Friendlies
The LA Galaxy matches against Sydney & Wellington from last week are being shown on Fox Soccer Channel:
-Tue Dec 11
Sydney v Los Angeles - 10pm central time
-Wed Dec 12
Wellington v Los Angeles - 7pm central time
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Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times Goal blog previews the NCAA Quarterfinals coming up this weekend. (See yesterdays du Nord for the game schedule)
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USA U17 at The Nike Friendlies
-The annual December tournament in Bradenton Florida.
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 6
USA v Russia - live at 2pm central on FSC
-Sat Dec 8
USA v Brazil - live at 1:30pm central on FSC
-Sun Dec 9
USA v Turkey - delayed at 7pm central on FSC
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US Soccer with video from the Nike Friendlies.
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An update on the U23 camp so far.
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The San Luis Obispo Tribune with an article on hometown boy, Chris Seitz, who is currently with the USA U23 team getting ready to go to China next week.
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ModernGhana.com has an article on another young Ghanaian immigrant with serious soccer skills here in America.
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Dave Lifton for the US Soccer Players Assoc does a Q & A with USA senior team assistant coach Mike Sorber.
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Mexican Premiera Apertura Final
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 6
UNAM Pumas v Atlante - 9pm central on TeleFutura
-Sun Dec 9
Atlante v UNAM Pumas - 7pm central on TeleFutura
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The word coming from Mexico is that their 4 entrants in next summers Super Liga will be hand picked, not performance earned. Damn.
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The Trinidad Express talks to Dallas coach Steve Morrow about the quality of play on the islands after his team had just played 2 games against all-star teams from the Trinidad & Tobago Pro League.
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Copa Sudamericana - Arsenal de Sarandi of Argentina are the 2007 Champions!
-Wed Dec 5 - Second Leg
Arsenal 1-2 America series tied 4-4 on agg, but Arsenal win on the away goals tiebreaker.
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UEFA Cup
The penultimate Matchday - #4
-Wed Dec 5
Nurnberg 2-1 AZ Alkmaar
Everton 1-0 Zenit St Petersburg
Kobenhavn 0-2 Atletico Madrid
Panathinaikos 2-0 Lokomotiv Moskva
Mlada Boleslav 0-1 AEK Athens
Villarreal 2-0 Elfsborg
Dinamo Zagreb 0-2 Hamburger
Basel 1-0 Brann
-Thu Dec 6
Spartak Moskva v Zurich
Bayer Leverkusen v Sparta Praha
Aris v Braga
Crvena Zvezda v Bolton
Aalborg v Getafe
Anderlecht v Tottenham
Austria Wien v Panionios
Bordeaux v Helsingborg
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UEFA Cup Group Standings.
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Three Americans are playing matches in the UEFA Cup:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - v Getafe game today
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - started but was subbed out at halftime for another attacker, but they still lost 1-0 at Basel.
-Tim Howard - Everton - why of why did I doubt Tim Howard, they said he was sick and would not play, but of course he went 90, go the clean sheet and they beat Zenit St Petersburg 1-0.
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J Hutcherson of the US Soccer Players Assoc tries to figure out what the status of Americans Eddie Lewis & Benny Feilhaber is at Derby County now that they have a new manager in Paul Jewell.
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The two Serie A matches that were not played after a policeman shot a Lazio fan a few weeks back, were played yesterday:
Inter 3-0 Lazio
Roma 2-0 Cagliari
-So the top two in the league stay the same, Inter with 34 points, Roma with 31 and third place Juventus with 26.
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Paul Doyle at the Guardian tries to dig in to just what it is that's wrong with Tottenham. They spend and spend, and don’t come close to winning anything.
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Herr Weltmeister Claude Wormbridge at the Craven Cottage Newsround (awesome Fulham blog) has a link to a video of Cristiano Ronaldo and some other dude doing football juggling tricks together. Impressive.
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Chelsea & Cote d'Ivoire striker Didier Drogba could be out of action. The whispers going around England say he as a degenerative left meniscus that will require surgery.