Who Is The Master News

Super Pippo Inzaghi has broken the long time European competition goal scoring record, with his 63rd last night. The record of 62 had been held by German great Gerd Muller.


First Kick
The latest on the MLS opening weekend schedule for next season:
-FC Dallas will open their 2008 season at home on Mar 30 v Chivas USA, then play at Houston the next weekend.
-Toronto have to wait until April 19 for their first home game, when they host Salt Lake.
And here is the full sched as we know it now:
-Sat Mar 29
Kansas City v DC - 7pm central time
San Jose v New York - 9pm central time
New England v Houston - 6:30pm central time
Columbus v Toronto - 3pm central time on ABC
Colorado v Los Angeles - 8:30pm central time
Salt Lake v Chicago - 5pm central time
(i would assume one of these will be on FSC)
-Sun Apr 30
Dallas v Chivas USA - 2pm central time on TeleFutura
(thanks to Jaime for helping fill in the game start times)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is all kinds of completely crazy news about the New England coaching set up from an Ipswich Town (England) new site: Paul Mariner applied to be the technical director of the Bermuda FA! But he has pulled out of the running for that. Mariner is interested in the Seattle job. But he may stay at New England cuz Steve Nicol might be headed to Toronto! What do you think the odds are of any of that being true?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ives Galarcep on his Soccer by Ives blog says Jozy Altidore is NOT headed to Real Madrid at this time.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Bradley at MLSnet with his First XL: Checking It Twice
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob Luder of the KC Star with the latest Kansas City off-season news.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Dell'apa at Soccernet says MLS needs to expand rosters now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pat Walsh at Goal.com looks at the MLS offseason.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer America is reporting that Juan Sebastian Veron's wife is in the DC area looking for a house.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle with the latest in Houston Dynamo, MLS and world soccer news.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The big powerful Egyptian club Al Ahli says that one of their players is going on trial with the LA Galaxy. Ok, but that won't be until next February when the team reconvenes to prepare for next season. Or maybe he just goes to LA, works out for the coaching staff and meets people etc. Possible.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Pegasus News says FC Dallas & the Trinidad & Tobago Pro League have formed an official alliance. This article gives no details on what that arrangement might entail though.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Seattle crossed the 9200 mark in season tickets for 09. Amazing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NCAA Championship
Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Sat Dec 8
Wake Forest v Notre Dame
Connecticut v Virginia Tech
-Sun Dec 9
Ohio State v Bradley
Massachusetts v Illinois-Chicago
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Sudamericana Finale Tonight!
-Wed Dec 5 - Second Leg
Arsenal v America Ars leads 3-2 from the first leg.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Americans In Europe
Matches & Scores from Tuesday night in England:
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - went the distance in a 2-3 win at Colchester.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - missed the game with a knee injury, don't know the extent of it, as the team tied Southampton 0-0 on the road.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jack Bell of the New York Times Goal blog with the full transcript from the Freddy Adu Q & A.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The USA U23 team is in LA training ahead of their trip to China next week for 2 friendlies (also the site of next summers Olympic games for which this team will try to qualify).
-US Soccer has photos from practice sessions.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales for the US Soccer Players Assoc was on hand to watch the U23 practice sessions in the past few days and talked to some players and coaches.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nick Green of the LA Daily News likes the potential of the young Americans too.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrew Rogers at Soccer365 does a Q & A with new USA U17 assistant coach Paul Caffrey.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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
-USA Soccer has more details on the Nike Friendlies.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup
The penultimate Matchday - #4
-Wed Dec 5
Nurnberg v AZ Alkmaar
Everton v Zenit St Petersburg
Kobenhavn v Atletico Madrid
Panathinaikos v Lokomotiv Moskva
Mlada Boleslav v AEK Athens
Villarreal v Elfsborg
Dinamo Zagreb v Hamburger
Basel v 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
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

UEFA Cup -
Three Americans are playing matches in the UEFA Cup:
-Dan Califf - Aalborg - v Getafe
-Ramiro Corrales - Brann - at Basel
-Tim Howard - Everton - v Zenit St Petersburg
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It looks like Tim Howard is not going to play today due to illness. (thanks to BQ for that one)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Champions League
2 of the Matchday 6 games are being played today. While all the rest will be played in the 11th & 12th. This is so Milan can head off to Japan for the World Club Championship which starts on Thursday.
-Tue Dec 4
Milan 1-0 Celtic - goal by Filippo Inzaghi
Shakhtar Donetsk v Benfica - Shak goal by Cristiano Lucarelli. Ben goals both by Oscar Cardozo.
-Add Celtic to the list of teams that have advanced, but Shahktar losing they went through even they lost as well.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One American is playing a match in the Champions League this week:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - dressed but did not see action in his teams 1-2 win at Shakhtar Donetsk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune on last nights 2 CL matches.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The other 14 Champions League games will be played next Tue & Wed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The two Serie A matches that were not played after a policeman shot a Lazio fan a few weeks back, will be played today:
Inter v Lazio
Roma v Cagliari
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Guardian wants to know what has happened to South Korea?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two more from the Guardian, both about Arsenal:
-Even some of the players who tried & failed at Arsenal are helping other teams around the Premiership.
-Arsenal have found a right back for now and the future in Frenchman Bacary Sagna.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Simon Kuper of the Financial Times looks at the search for an England manager. He says, go foreign.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times writes about the special year for Brazilian Kaka.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reuters has a story with long time coach Wanderlei Luxemburgo who says the talent is drying up in Brazil. Really? I guess he outta know. But what about Pato & Jo and all those kids from the U20 and U17 teams etc.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Reuters blog with a story on the poor quality of the South Africa team right now. Will they embarrass themselves at the 2010 World Cup? I don't know if it's that grim.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former Brazilian star striker Romario has been caught in a doping scandal, but he claims it is a product he takes to try and fill in the bald spots in his hair. This should be a lesson for all you kids: Vanity can bite you on the ass in many ways.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Looks like Chivas de Guadalajara is going to be getting a new stadium. The new one (45,000) will hold a lot less people than the old semi-legendary one (62,000) - Stadio Jalisco.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mexican defender Carlos Salcido has been given a contract extension by his club team PSV Eindhoven through the 2011-12 season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The new Jamaica manager is an old Jamaica manager. Rene Simoes is back at the helm. He is the coach that took them to the World Cup in 98.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Word is spreading in Europe that Liverpool's 8-0 destruction of Besiktas in the Champions League play is under investigation by UEFA & Europol for possible ties to gambling. That would be very bad if there was any truth in that.