St. Bombasticus News

Let me say that I was dead wrong about Liverpool forward Fernando Torres. I had made the bold statement that he was not a big game player, and would shrivel up under the pressure at Liverpool. But for their sake, he has done the opposite. Great for him, good for the team. Can he now do it for Spain too?


The Dallas Morning News says FC Dallas was working on a deal to trade Carlos Ruiz to LA who would ship Joe Cannon to DC who would send Bobby Boswell to Dallas. But, the deal collapsed.
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Steven Goff of the Washington Post tells us what’s going on with current DC United keeper Troy Perkins. (Is he headed to Valarenga in Norway?)
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And later Goff reports that Boswell has now been shipped off to Houston in exchange for that teams backup keeper Zach Wells. Which means that DC must figure they are going to lose Perkins, and are in need of a new starter.
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Andrea Canales at Soccernet tells us what the LA Galaxy got out of their recent trip to Down Under.
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Two stories on the search for new coach in Chicago - Nick Firchau of the Southtown Star - and - the Daily Herald
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Lacy Banks of the Chicago Sun Times on "How The Coach Stole Christmas". Starring Juan Carlos Osorio as the Grinch.
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Luis Arroyave of his Red Card blog gets the latest from former Fire captain and now retired Chris Armas.
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MLS has announced the list of college players invited to their scouting combine. The event takes place Jan 11-15 in Fort Lauderdale Florida, and the draft takes places 3 days after, this year in Baltimore.
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Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated on his Throw-In's blog gets us a little insider info on stadium progress in San Jose directly from team owner Lew Wolff.
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Brad Rock of the Deseret Morning News with some words from Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts on the long hard road to building a stadium for his team. In the article Checketts says he would do a few things differently if he could do it all over again:
-Do a better job of educating people "more clearly as to what this project is about from the get-go."
-Do a little more P.R.-wise
-Focus more on the competitive side
Ummmmm, is there more to a team than this? I guess he didn't mention sales. So I guess that means that they got that one covered.
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San Jose has announced that they will play their first home game on April 12 v Chicago. But we still don't know about Week 1.
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The San Mateo County Times has a story on high school soccer players who attended try-out camps for the San Jose Earthquakes this fall. It turns out that my California High School sports rules, they are now all ineligible to play high school soccer because they had a try-out with a professional team. Another reason to skip high school and college soccer and play for a great club.
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The Sacramento Bee also has a story on the Earthquakes and their awareness of the regional market.
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Miami Today with a story that says MLS is serious about the chances of a new team in Miami.
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The Pacific Daily News of Guam with a story on one of those players that got away from MLS due to the low developmental salaries - Ryan Guy.
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USA U23 Friendlies
Matches & Scores:
-Thu Dec 13
China U23 v USA U23 in Changsha
-Sun Dec 16
China U23 v USA U23 in Guangzhou
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Here is the U23 official team blog.
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Today’s U23 team update from US Soccer.
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And a transcript of a press conference with coach Petr Nowak & midfielder Sacha Kljestan.
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Club World Cup
-About the teams:
Urawa Red Diamonds - Japan - Host team & Asian Champions
Etoile Sportive du Sahal - Tunisia - African Champions
Boca Juniors - Argentina - CONMEBOL Champions
AC Milan - Italy - European Champions
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Dec 12 - Semifinals
Etoile 0-1 Boca Juniors - goal by Neri Cardozo.
Match report, video highlights, stats etc from FIFA.com
-Thu Dec 13 - Semifinals
Urawa v Milan
-Sun Dec 16 - Championship Match
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The Dallas Morning News with a story on a Dallas kid who is making a name for himself in the Mexican 2nd division.
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Champions League - Matchday 6 - The final round of the Group Stage.
-Tue Dec 11
Marseille 0-4 Liverpool - goals by Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt & Ryan Babel.
Porto 2-0 Besiktas - goals by Lucho Gonzalez & Ricardo Quaresma.
Chelsea 0-0 Valencia
Schalke 3-1 Rosenborg - Schal goals by Gerald Asamoah, Rafinha & Kevin Kuranyi. Rose goal by Yssouf Kone.
Real Madrid 3-1 Lazio - Real goals by Julio Baptista, Raul Gonzalez & Robinho. Laz goal by Goran Pandev.
Olympiacos 3-0 Bremen - goals by Ieroklis Stoltidis(2) & Darko Kovacevic.
-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 CL Group standings.
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And these are the teams that have advanced to the knockout stages so far:
-#1 Seeds
Barcelona
Chelsea
Inter Milan
Manchester United
Milan
Porto
Real Madrid
(one spot still open - between Sevilla & Arsenal)
-#2 Seeds
Celtic
Liverpool
Olympiacos
Roma
Schalke
(three spots still open - one between Sevilla & Arsenal, one between Rangers & Lyon, and one between Fenerbache & PSV)
-The Knockout Stage draw will take place on Fri Dec 21.
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Valencia has lost star striker David Villa indefinitely after tearing a thigh muscle. Oh, that must really hurt.
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The word from Italy today is that Inter Milan have signed CSKA Moscow's Brazilian midfielder Daniel Carvalho. He will join the team for next season.
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Paolo Bandini of the Guardian gives us the full run down on probable England coach Fabio Capello.
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And finally today, some thoughts on what players do during the offseason. From McSweeney's. (thanks to Pat for this gem)