Monday, December 10, 2007

Radios Von Helmen News

New York Red Bulls have poached Chicago Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio! Is there a price to be paid? I assume there is, but what?

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USA 19 year old midfielder Michael Bradley scored 3, yes 3, first half goals to lead his club Heerenveen to a 4-2 win over Groningen.

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A big rumor out of Scotland says Bruce Arena is in the running for their national team job! I think that would be really great.

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Atlante of Cancun are the 2007 Mexican Premiera Apertura Champions! (see details below)

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USC are the Women's NCAA College Cup Champions! (see details below)


Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc with part 2 of his Q & A with MLS deputy Ivan Gazidis.
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Greg Seltzer of American Soccer Daily reports that the LA Galaxy are chasing a top Polish striker, Maciej Zurawski, who is seeing little field time right now at Celtic.
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Toronto's American midfielder Maurice Edu is the subject of a rumor in which Aston Villa of England are chasing him down. Great move. I have been hesitant to say this, but after the last 2 USA games I think he is the real deal.
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Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America looks at why assistant coach Bob Gansler really left Toronto.
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Kyle McCarthy of Goal.com with his list of this seasons worst bang for the buck players in MLS.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet with 5 players that Bob Bradley needs to take a look at for Team USA.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet writes about American players that should be given deals to come home and play in MLS rather than abroad.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle writes about Oscar de la Hoya and his possible bid to buy the Dynamo.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer looks more at a possible soccer stadium in their city. The bad news is that the local investors have brought in former New York team president Nick Sakiewicz as a consultant. Nothing against him personally, but he is heavily tainted with the Meadowlands curse. Let's hope we never hear him utter the phrase "30 to 60 days" again.
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NCAA College Cup - Quarterfinals, Semifinals & Final
Matches & Scores:
-Sat Dec 8
Connecticut(3) 0-1 Virginia Tech(11) - goal by Patrick Nyarko.
Notre Dame(10) 0-1 Wake Forest(2) - goal by Austin da Luz.
-Sun Dec 9
Massachusetts(none) 2-1 Illinois-Chicago(none) - UMass goals by Stuart Amick & Mike DeSantis. UIC goal by Mike Griffin.
Ohio State(5) 4-0 Bradley(none) - goals by Xavier Balc(2), Geoff Marsh & Andrew Magill.
-The NCAA semi's & final are next weekend at SAS Park in Cary South Carolina. All three games will be shown on some variation of ESPN.
Matches & Scores:
-Fri Dec 14 - Semifinals
Virginia Tech v Wake Forest - live at 4pm central time on ESPN2 & ESPNU
Massachusetts v Ohio State - live at 6:30pm central time on ESPNU & delayed at 10pm central on Sat Dec 15 on ESPN2
-Sun Dec 16 - Final
live at 2pm central time on ESPN2
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MLS players Brian Namoff, Gavin Glinton & Tim Reagan were all on hand to watch their former team Bradley this past weekend.
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Nick Firchau of Chicago's Daily Southtown with an article on former Fire coach Dave Sarachan who's son Ian was one of the stars for UIC.
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NCAA Women's College Cup - Final
Matches & Scores:
-Sun Dec 9
USC 2-0 Florida State - goals by Marihelen Tomer & Janessa Currier.
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USA U17 at the Nike Friendlies
-The annual December tournament in Bradenton Florida.
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 6
USA 2-0 Russia - goals by Carlos Martinez and Stefan Jerome.
-Sat Dec 8
USA 2-0 Brazil - goals by Carlos Martinez & Stefan Jerome(PK). (again)
Match report from US Soccer.
-Sun Dec 9
USA 0-2 Turkey - goals both by Ali Cukadar.
Match report from US Soccer.
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My thoughts on the USA U17 team:
Yes, our U17 boys played well in beating Brazil on Saturday, then proved they are still young boys by losing badly to Turkey on Sunday. Inconsistency is the key at this age, and its usually tough to achieve at 15 or 16 years old, much less 13. Their were several players who made themselves proud: Jared Watts, Perry Kitchen, Earl Edwards, Carlos Martinez, Joseph-Claude Gyua, Stefan Jerome, Marlon Duran & Charles Renken all showed stretches of high quality. Over all I don't have a lot to say about this team, other than they look quite good for their age.
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US Soccer has video highlights of all 3 USA U17 games. And a video recap of the entire weekend of matches (click on "2007 Development Academy Nike Friendlies").
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The USA U23 team has arrived in China to play two matches later this week. You can stay in touch daily through their official team blog. Some really good stuff here.
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US Soccer also tipped us off to a Q & A with USA U23 coach Petr Nowak by NBC Olympics.
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Due to injuries both Adam Cristman (hamstring strain) & Nathan Sturgis (calf muscle strain) did not go with the team to China.
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Jeff Rusnack of the South Florida Sun Sentinel with his first relevant soccer article in ages - he gets the lowdown on the USA U20 team that just returned from 3 games in Argentina, from coach Thomas Rongen. Note to Rusnack's editor: We need more of this! Not more recaps of boring Euro stories!
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Americans In Europe - how'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 75th minute as they beat Academica de Coimbra 3-1 in the 4th round of the Portuguese Cup.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - went all 90 as usual in the center of defense, but lost 3-0 at Osnabruck.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - did not leave the bench in a 3-0 loss at Everton.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - started, went all 90 and played out of his mind, scoring 3(!!!!) goals in a 4-2 win over Groningen. Wow!
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played all 90 minutes of a big 4-3 win over high flying Bremen at home.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - got the start, going 88 minutes, and setting up two of his teams goals in a huge 3-1 upset over Liverpool.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - started and finished in a 0-0 draw at Stoke.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started but was subbed out in the 64th minute of a 3-0 loss at Everton.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress, and his team lost 4-1 at Manchester United. The coaching change does not appear to have made any difference on the field, and Benny is not even getting to play any more.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - as usual he was in the goal but lost 0-1 at home to West Ham.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went the distance in his teams great 3-1 win over Liverpool.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played all 90 of a 3-0 home win over Fulham.
-Ian Joy - St Pauli - was injured and did not play in his teams 2-2 tie game at Alemania Aachen.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - was not dressed for a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Manchester United.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - as usual he went all 90 minutes and they beat Royal Charleroi 5-1!
-Heath Pearce - Hansa Rostock - started and went all 90, but lost badly on the road at Bayer Leverkusen 3-0.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - game v Coventry was not played due to a flooded field. It will be made up at a later date.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came on in the 76 minute of an important 0-1 road win at Blackburn.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - went the distance in a 1-0 victory over Cologne.
-Danny Szetela - Racing Santander - made the bench for the first time in league play, but did not see the field, while his team won 3-1 over Mallorca.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - came on in the 33rd minute of a 3-0 loss at Osnabruck.
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Michael Bradley now has an astonishing 10 goals this season in all competitions! I did not see this coming. He did a great job on the goals of being what I call a "garbage man". Being in the right place at the right time. A very important role for any team.
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American Soccer Daily talks to USA & Aalborg defender Dan Califf, who is captain of his club team.
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Mexican Premiera Apertura Playoffs - Final
Matches & Scores:
First Leg-
-Thu Dec 6
UNAM Pumas 0-0 Atlante - 9pm central on TeleFutura
Second Leg-
-Sun Dec 9
Atlante 2-1 UNAM Pumas - Atl goals by Giancarlo Maldonado & Clemente Ovalle. UNAM goal by Ismael Iniguez.
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Former Colorado Rapids midfielder Alain Nkong played a strong substitute role for the Champions. Another one who got away?
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Only 2 Big Matches in Europe this weekend:
-Sat Dec 8
Fenerbahce 2-0 Galatasaray - the spectacle of two big Turkish clubs playing is always amazing to me.
Athletic Bilbao 0-1 Real Madrid - like a civil war, with the Basques holding off the State.
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FIFA Club World Cup
-The tournament got underway yesterday in Japan
-About the teams:
Sepahan - Iran - Asian Runners Up (in tournament due to host team winning Asia)
Waitakere United - New Zealand - Oceania Champions
Urawa Red Diamonds - Japan - Host team & Asian Champions
Etoile Sportive du Sahal - Tunisia - African Champions
Pachuca - Mexico - CONCACAF Champions
Boca Juniors - Argentina - CONMEBOL Champions
AC Milan - Italy - European Champions
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 6
Sepahan 3-1 Waitakere United
-Fri Dec 7
Etoile Sportive du Sahel 1-0 Pachuca - goal by Moussa Narry.
-And just like that, the mighty Tuzos of Pachuca are out. They went a long way just to lose.
Match report from FIFA.com.
-Mon Dec 10
Sepahan v Urawa Red Diamonds
-Wed Dec 12 - Semifinal
Etoile Sportive du Sahel v Boca Juniors
-Thu Dec 13 - Semifinal
Sepahan/Urawa winner v Milan
-Sun Dec 16 - Championship
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Champions League - Matchday 6 - The final round of the Group Stage.
-Tue Dec 11
Marseille v Liverpool - live at 1:30pm central time on ESPN2.
Porto v Besiktas - delayed at 3:45pm central time on Setanta.
Chelsea v Valencia - live at 1:30pm central time on Setanta.
Schalke v Rosenborg - delayed at 5:30pm central time on Setanta.
Real Madrid v Lazio - delayed at 4pm central time on ESPN Classic.
Olympiakos v Bremen
-Wed Dec 12
Rangers v Lyon - live at 1:30pm central time on ESPN2.
Barcelona v Stuttgart - delayed at 4pm central time on ESPN Classic.
Roma v Man U - live at 1pm central time on Setanta.
Sporting v Dynamo Kyiv
PSV v Inter
Fenerbahce v CSKA Moskva - delayed at 5:30pm central time on Setanta.
Arsenal v Steaua - delayed at 3:45pm central time on Setanta.
Slavia v Sevilla
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Here are the Group standings.
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The BBC says ESPN is looking at bidding for UK rights to the English Premiership.
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Samuel Eto'o got the start for Barcelona and played 64 minutes in their 2-1 win over Deportivo La Coruna, while Deco came on to start the second half. Both have been out for quite a while with injuries, and getting them back toward top gear could really put this team on a roll. Ronaldinho also played the entire match and contributed nicely. Look out.
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The Football Italia weekend wrap up from Serie A.
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The Turkish Daily News interviews one of du Nord's very favorite soccer writers, Simon Kuper.
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The Guardian has scribes posted around Europe to cover the local scenes:
-Sid Lowe in Spain - insanity on the pitch at Atletico Madrid, from the ref and the players etc etc etc.
-Raphael Honigstein in Germany - the coaching melt down at Bielefeld.
-Paolo Bandini in Italy - Udinese are the surprise team for sure!
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And finally, Steven Wells at the Guardian says England need to hire Morrissey as the national team's new leader. Yes, THAT Morrissey.

3 Comments:

Blogger Mister Zero said...

Wow, that Morrissey piece just tops them all! Amazing.

7:12 PM  
Blogger Joe Ginto said...

News on the Osorio front

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/soccer/fire/cs-071210fire,1,3472362.story?coll=cs-fire-headlines

Fire will get draft picks, salary cap allocation money and plain old dollars. As a Fire fan, I'm way bummed.

7:27 AM  
Blogger Mister Zero said...

New USMNT Away kits (Spring 08)

10:48 AM  

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