Hello My Name Is Anton Chigurh, Call It, News

In no surprise at all France Football awarded Brazil & Milan midfielder Rikki Kaka the Ballon d'Or aka the European Player Of The Year.

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Lanus have captured the Argentine Apertura crown. It is their first title EVER. The club was started 92 years ago. That is one long wait for glory. (see details below)


Steve Davis at Soccernet thinks MLS could be targeting the wrong audience. I have been saying this from Day 1.
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One more piece to check out from the Reuters Summit last week - a video interview with MLS commishnah Don Garber.
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J Hutcherson of the US Soccer Players Assoc looks at the question of MLS's financial stability.
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Long time USA & MLS defender Carlos Llamosa has announced his retirement. He has been with Chivas USA the past 2 seasons but injuries have all but ended his career throughout that whole time.
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Jamie Cardenas of the LA Times on his Korner Pocket blog says the deal for Chivas USA midfielder Francisco Mendoza [CORRECTED] to head back to the mothership in Guadalajara is all but done.
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This Is American Soccer has a first hand fan account on the LA Galaxy visit to Australia.
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Greg Seltzer of American Soccer Daily talks to San Jose GM John Doyle about building his new team from scratch.
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MLS Off-season Friendlies
Matches & Scores:
-Fri Nov 30
T & T Pro League Foreign All-Stars 2-2 FC Dallas - FCD win on PK's - TT goals both by Jonathan Frias. FCD goals by Kenny Cooper & Scott Jones.
-Sat Dec 1
Wellington Phoenix 1-4 Los Angeles Galaxy - Well goal by Ross Aloisi. LA goals by Clint Mathis, Landon Donovan, Carlos Pavon & David Beckham(PK) - he also set up those other three goals.
-Sun Dec 2
T & T Pro League Local All-Stars 1-0 FC Dallas TT goal scorer unknown
Chivas USA 6-0 Mexican Soccer Legends - Chiv goals by Anthony Wallace(4!) & Matt Taylor(2).
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Look at this picture of the goalmouth down in Trinidad & Tobago where Dallas played this weekend. What a joke. (from FC Dallas Updates)
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Buzz Carrick of 3rd Degree went down to T & T to watch Dallas play, and has filed these Travel Log's:
Days One and Two
Day Three
Day Four
Match report from TT Foreign All Stars v FCD
Pictures Buzz took on the trip.
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The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle with an article on the serious financial trouble that the Rochester Raging Rhino's are in.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet looks at who he thinks will make up the USA Olympic team.
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The Times of London with a great story on Blackburn's American keeper Brad Friedel, who not surprisingly, is very humble.
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USA U20 Friendlies in Argentina
-The team headed south for 3 games. The first game was supposed to be against Paraguay, but it fell through, so Boca Juniors reserves took the spot.
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Nov 26
Boca Juniors 1-1 USA - USA goal by Amobi Okugo.
-Thu Nov 28
Argentina 1-1 USA - USA goal by Jorge Flores.
-Sat Dec 1
Uruguay 1-0 USA
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USA U17 at the Nike Friendlies
-The annual December tournament in Bradenton Florida.
-All 3 USA games can be seen on Fox Soccer Channel.
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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USA Soccer has more details on the Nike Friendlies.
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NCAA Quarterfinals
-Down to the quarterfinals now, with games to be played next weekend. The big upset was unheralded Bradley beat perennial favorites Maryland. Defending champs UC Santa Barbara were beaten by Ohio State in extra time, and 3 unseeded teams made it to the last eight.
Matches & Scores - with seeds included:
-Dec 7, 8 or 9 (exact dates tbd)
Massachusetts(none) v Illinois-Chicago(none)
Ohio State(5) v Bradley(none)
Connecticut(3) v Virginia Tech(11)
Notre Dame(10) v Wake Forest(2)
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Americans in Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 79th minute of the huge match v Porto but lost 0-1 at home.
-DaMarcus Beasley - Rangers - out with a serious knee injury. Will be on the shelf for a good long time, sadly.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - played all 90 minutes but drew 0-0 at home to Paderborn.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - play at Manchester United on Monday night.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - started and went the distance as usual in a 1-0 win over Nijmegen.
-Danny Califf - Aalborg - captained his team back from a 0-3 hole to win 5-3 over Lyngby.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played all 90 minutes of a 0-3 road win at Hansa Rostock.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - started and played 77 minutes in a 1-1 home tie with Middlesbrough.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - played the entire match in a 1-2 home loss to Bristol City.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - play at Manchester United on Monday night.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 1-0 loss at Sunderland. They now sit in last place.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - in the goal as always and led his team to a 3-1 home win over Newcastle.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - started in the goal as always, but could only tie 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played the entire match as usual and drew 0-0 at Portsmouth.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - went the distance in a 3-4 home loss to Kaiserslautern.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 1-0 loss at Sunderland. They now sit in last place.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played all 90 at centerback as usual and tied 0-0 at Anderlecht.
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - came on at half time, but lost 0-3 at home to Hannover.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - played the entire match in a 1-2 home loss to Colchester.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came on in the 79th minute in the midfield, but lost 1-0 at Chelsea.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - play at home v Alemannia Aachen on Monday night.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - played all 90 minutes but drew 0-0 at home to Paderborn.
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Aalborg and American captain Dan Califf begin their Danish league winter break in first place!
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An injury update from Fulham, with news on Brian McBride, Kasey Keller, and former Columbus Crew midfielder Simon Elliot (remember him?). (thanks to BQ for this)
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Copa Sudamericana Final
-Fri Nov 30 - First Leg
Club America 2-3 Arsenal de Sarandi - Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas & Alejandro Arguello. Ars goals by Anibal Matellan & Alejandro Dario Gomez(2).
-Wed Dec 5 - Second Leg
Arsenal v America
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Mexican Premiera Playoffs
Semifinal Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 28
Guadalajara 1-0 Atlante - goal by Ramon Morales.
-Thu Nov 29
UNAM Pumas 3-0 Santos Laguna - goals by Ignacio Scocco(2) & Hector Moreno.
-Sat Dec 1
Atlante 1-0 Guadalajara - tied 1-1 on aggregate, Atlante advance by being the higher seeded team. Atl goal by Giancarlo Maldonado.
-Sun Dec 2
Santos Laguna 4-2 UNAM Pumas - UNAM Pumas advance 5-4 on agg. Sant goals by Emmanuel Luduena(3) & Matias Vuoso. Pum goals by Carlos Gonzalez & Ignacio Scocco.
Final Matches & Scores:
- Wed Dec 5
UNAM Pumas v Atlante - TV tba
- Sat Dec 8
Atlante v UNAM Pumas - TV tba
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Argentina
Lanus have captured the championship on Sunday!
-Final Points Standings:
38 Lanus
34 Tigre
31 Boca Juniors
30 Argentinos Juniors
29 Banfield
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Nov 28
Tigre 2-1 Boca Juniors
Lanus 4-0 Gimnasia
-Sat Dec 2
Boca Juniors 1-1 Lanus
Argentinos Juniors 1-0 Tigre
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Big Euro match scores from this weekend:
Chelsea 1-0 West Ham - the result you would expect.
Espanyol 1-1 Barcelona - in a sense, the both lose.
Milan 0-0 Juventus - without all 3, both fall further behind league leaders Inter.
Werder Bremen 2-1 Hamburger - with the win Bremen stay on the tail of leaders Bayern, just one point back, with Hamburg 3rd and 4 points back.
Benfica 0-1 Porto - Porto opened up a 7 point lead over 2nd place Benfica.
Fiorentina 0-2 Inter - first place Inter were dominant on the score sheet, and solid with the defense.
Roma 2-1 Udinese - the win helps the Romans keep pace with the leaders.
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Champions League
2 of the Matchday 6 games are being played on Tue Dec 4. While all the rest will be played in the 11th & 12th.
-Tue Dec 4
Milan v Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk v Benfica
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One American is playing a match in the Champions League this week:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica at Shakhtar Donetsk - but Benfica have already been eliminated from advancing.
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Ballon d'Or Voting results:
1 Kaka - AC Milan
2 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United FC
3 Lionel Messi - FC Barcelona
4 Didier Drogba - Chelsea FC
5 Andrea Pirlo - AC Milan
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with the winner Kaka.
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Reuters with a list of all the winners from 1956 to now.
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A writer for Canada's CBC took in the recent Rome derby (Roma v Lazio) and has this report from the grudge match.
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The Insider at Soccernet goes to Stamford Bridge to see Chelsea beat cross town rival West Ham. The biggest rave of the day is for Drogba. Always a good read from The Insider.
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Kaizer Chiefs won the South African League Cup final on Saturday.
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In Spain, 19th place Real Betis have fired coach Hector Cuper.
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Phil Ball of Soccernet looks at homegrown talent and recaps La Liga.
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2 years ago Carlos Tevez & Javier Macherano led Corinthians to the Brazilian title. What a long time ago that must seem to the teams fans.... They were relegated yesterday.
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Football Italia rounds up the winners and the losers from Week 14 of the Serie A season.
-The most amazing stat of the weekend is that AC Milan have now gone 9 league home matches without a win. You cannot win any titles that way.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune ponders a mystery - why is Milan having so much trouble scoring goals?
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The Guardian with their regular great Monday round up from Europe’s top leagues/countries:
-Sid Lowe - Spain - on the Catalan derby, the Catalan people, and La Liga.
-Raphael Honigstein - Germany - the country's feelings on the draw for Euro 08 - and - will Luka Modric of Croatia be able to tear them apart? He also raves about Franck Ribery, Rafael Van Der Vaart & Diego, foreigners who are starring in die Bundesliga.
-Paolo Bandini - Italy - are Inter stoppable? I have to ask though, isn't it a little early to declare it over? Anything can happen between now and May. Please.
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2 stories from Germany's De Spiegel, the first on a new Europol investigation into match-fixing in Europe (which could get very serious), and the second on the nurturing of young stars like Lionel Messi.
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Simon Kuper at the Financial Times writes about the co-host of Euro 08 - Switzerland. He says it's definitely NOT a football country. Can they pull the tournament off? Will they even care?
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A couple of really good stories from Reuters:
-Serbia decides to get tough with violent soccer fans.
-South American Street Football - it's not about the winning.
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Finally, our favorite German who plays defense for Fulham, Moritz Volz, with his latest words of wisdom from the Times of London.