Still Have To Sign Every One News

Congrats go out to Colo Colo for winning their 4th Chilean league title in a row!! (Maybe our resident mamacita can give us some details.)


Mexican forward Jared Borgetti again said NO to MLS and has signed with Monterrey. Good.
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Steve Davis at Soccernet says MLS needs to maintain their growth in quality.
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And Frank Dell'apa writing for Soccernet says some of that quality will come from Argentina.
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The word on the street says Norwegian club Valerenga paid 750K DC United keeper Troy Perkins.
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I saw one of those classic Big Soccer rumors today - Landon Donovan will go on loan to Everton. I love it.
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Nick Green of the LA Daily News with the LA Galaxy wish list.
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Greg Seltzer of American Soccer Daily with the latest on Dallas midfielder Arturo Alvarez and his potential move to........
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Former KC Wiz forward Onandi Lowe of Jamaica has had another brush with the law over drugs. He was arrested once before, in England, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. This time he was busted in Kingston Jamaica with 42 joints in his car. Oh, Lanadi, you bad boy you!
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The Philadelphia Inquirer with the story of MLS team #16 - It's Philly v St Louis for one spot.
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Luis Arroyave writing for Soccernet does a Q & A with Chicago Bulls' Sudanese basketball player Luol Deng who is a huge soccer fan.
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Michael Lewis of the New York Daily News recaps the 2007 year in local soccer.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle gives us his tops of 07.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune with his 2007 highlights.
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated tells us what he wants for Christmas.
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MLS In Seattle has a Q & A with one of the teams managing partners - Tod Leiweke. Do you trust a guy named Tod with only one "d"? (Warning: the article is from the team website, so it's lacking substance.)
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Yahoo Finance is reporting that MLS is negotiating with Turner Sports to run its web site. Major League Baseball has been running the MLS site up until now.
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What about MLS in Cleveland & a stadium? Is the issue dead? Is there anything new?
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Speaking of stadiums.... Kerasotes has bought land next to Toyota Park in Chicago and is going to build a 14 screen movie theater.
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American Soccer Daily talks to USA U20 & Wake Forest defender Jules Valentin about winning the NCAA title 2 weeks ago, and what the future holds.
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Someone sent me this link to videos of all the USA goals from 2007 - and - "Jay DeMerit, US Soccer Intern"! But, there seems to be a "scandalous" part in the DeMerit video, so US Soccer has removed the link from their site. You can see it here for now, so watch it while you can, cuz it might not last long. And thanks a ton to ALG who sent them to us. Great stuff.
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Americans in Europe
-How'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on as a 83rd minute sub in a 3-0 home win over Estrela Amadora last Thursday.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - both 2 full matches, a 1-1 home draw with Wigan on Saturday and a 5-1 drubbing at Tottenham on Sunday.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - played the whole game but lost 1-2 at home to Twente Enschede, with Bradley drawing a penalty that a teammate promptly missed. The team plays again tonight at Roda.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - started on Saturday going 84 minutes in a 2-1 home win over Sunderland, then playing 66 minutes in a 1-1 draw at West Ham on Wednesday.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - 2 games, 180 minutes played, 2 goals scored (the only 2 by his team), but only 1 point. The drew 1-1 v Wigan on Saturday, and lost 5-1 at Tottenham on Tuesday.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - went 90 minutes in a 0-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, and followed it up with a goal and 90 more minutes in a 2-2 home draw with Cardiff on Boxing Day.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - came on as a sub in both games over the weekend, in a 2-2 draw at Newcastle, and in the 46th minute of a 1-2 home loss to Liverpool.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - went the full 90 last Sunday but lost 0-1 at home to Chelsea. Play at Man City today (Thurs).
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - played the whole match as always in a 2-1 home win over Sunderland, then doing it again in a 1-1 draw at West Ham on Wednesday.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance as usual in 2 games, a 2-1 loss at Man United, and a 2-0 win over Bolton.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started 2 games and went all 90 in each, but the team gave up 4 points late, in a 2-2 draw at Newcastle and a 1-2 loss v Liverpool.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played all 90 as usual and beat Genk 3-1 at home. They are in first place, tied with Brugge.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - back into the starting lineup and going the distance in a 1-2 road win at Middleborough on Saturday, and 90 again in a 1-1 home draw v Reading on Boxing Day.
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My friend Joe in Los Angeles sent me a very interesting fact - Brad Friedel has now played in 166 consecutive matches for Blackburn!!! Amazing.
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Yanks Abroad lets their readers ask American & Charleroi midfielder Greg Dalby 11 Questions.
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The Watford team site has an interview with American defender Jay DeMerit. In the interview he talks about the bar he owns in Chicago, and talks about buying another in St Paul!
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The Washington Post with an article on USA midfielder Freddy Adu, and his first half season in Portugal at Benfica.
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Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail recaps 2007 Canadian style.
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Big big big Euro games last weekend:
Nancy Lorraine 1-1 Lyon - #2 had a great chance to pull within one point of #1 in Ligue Un, but could only manage to keep pace.
Zaragoza 2-2 Valencia - still no mercy for this seasons biggest flounderers who now sit in 9th & 7th place respectively.
Lens v Lille - le Derby du Nord did not take place due to a frozen pitch. A make up date has not been set yet.
Barcelona 0-1 Real Madrid - Julio Baptista & Ruud van Nistelrooy worked a gorgeous give and go for the only goal they needed. RM's league lead is now 7 points.
Internazionale Milan 2-1 AC Milan - Inter had to come from behind, but looked pretty impressive in victory. They now have a stunning 25 point gap between themselves and their inter-stadium rivals, and 7 points ahead of 2nd place Roma.
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The Top 5 Teams in each of Europe's Top 5 Leagues:
-Premiership-
45 Manchester United
44 Arsenal
38 Chelsea
36 Liverpool
34 Manchester City
-La Liga-
41 Real Madrid
34 Barcelona
33 Espanyol
32 Villareal
31 Atletico Madrid
-Serie A-
43 Inter Milan
36 Roma
35 Juventus
29 Udinese
28 Fiorentina
-Ligue Un-
39 Lyon
35 Nancy Lorraine
33 Bordeaux
31 Caen
30 Le Mans
-Eredivisie-
35 Feyenoord
33 PSV
31 Ajax
30 Gronigen
29 Heerenveen
-The Bundesliga is on winter break.
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Feyenoord has shockingly risen to the top of the Dutch league after several years struggling to keep pace with the top teams. Great for them.
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A referee in Kuala Lumpur was hassled by an entire team after giving one of their players a Red Card, so he went to his car and got a gun. He fired warning shots into the air to get them to back off. He is also a cop! (thanks to CL for this one)
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Reuters with another sad story on Brazil & Inter forward Adriano. He was loaned out to Brazilian club Sao Paulo [CORRECTED] last week, and the team was hoping he could straighten out his personal life which has been dogged by alcohol abuse problems. But only a few days after returning home he was photographed at a concert drinking beer. Damn.
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Phil Ball of Soccernet calls Real Madrid's win over Barcelona a White Christmas. And other La Liga news.
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The Insider at Soccernet reviews Reading v Sunderland and gives a not so pleasant verdict on Reading's season.
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Robert Gotta of Soccernet on Inter's domination of Serie A.
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Ron Blum of the AP with a story on the first year of Tom Hicks ownership of Liverpool FC.
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Chelsea's Frank Lampard has torn a thigh muscle and will be out for at least a couple of weeks.
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Boca Juniors has hired former assistant coach Carlos Ischia as their new top man. Oddly, he was previously the coach of last place Rosario Central. Since when does the biggest team in a country hire the coach from the worst team?
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Jack Bell of the New York Times on African players who will have to choose between club and country late next month when the Africa Nations Cup starts.
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Maradona took his buffoonery to a whole new level this week by saying he wants to meet Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who he called a great man. Come on Diego, wake up. These idiots like Ahmadinejad, Chavez & Castro are just using you. You say you love them cuz they hate Bush, but they are no better than Bush, and probably worse.