Party All The Time News

I gotta admit, I did not ever think that Cleetus would be back playing in New York:
-Brian Forbes at the Denver Post with a few more details on the Clint Mathis to New York trade story. Looks like Salt Lake is still on the hook for most of Mathis's salary though. Wow, RSL has made a lot of bad deals. This is a great deal for Colorado, cuz they are getting rid of dead weight. I have no idea how this will benefit New York.
-Ives Galarcep of the North Jersey Herald with the deal from the Red Bulls perspective.
-Metrofanatic obviously has an opinion on this topic.
-Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer, how did he react to the news: "You've got to be kidding me!"
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There is real, actual, genuine news from Portland about future MLS possibilities. Very cool to see. They better get serious and buy the Timbers and make that their team in MLS or they are making a huge mistake. From the Oregonian. Thanks to Ethan for sending me this.
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FC Dallas plays Brazilian club Atletico Paranaense on Saturday at Pizza Hut Park in the return leg of the "USA-Brazil Challenge". Paranaense leads 3-1.
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Dallas has now officially signed Argentine midfielder Pablo Richetti, but have to wait for his visa to come through before he can play. It's doubtful that will happen before the season opener. Dallas keeper Dairo Sala is the one who lured Richetti from Argentina. From the Dallas Morning News.
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Real Salt Lake let their reserves play BYU last night in St George in southern Utah. 6000 people turned out for the game. That's more than at many Colorado Rapids home games last year. The local promoter probably told people Freddy Adu was gonna be there. Hahaha. Still, nice turn out. From the Deseret Morning News.
-Here's the report from the Spectrum paper in St George.
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A reader called Wilablog was at the New England v New Orleans match the other night and did a little report & took some good photos. Check it out now.
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Andrew Hush of Soccer New England looks at where the Rev's stand as their preseason comes to a close.
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Toronto FC has signed 6 fresh faces to their developmental roster. From The Globe & Mail.
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The Globe & Mail also talk to TFC keeper Greg Sutton about the art of stopping PK's.
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The Toronto Star talks to Houston midfielder Dwayne De Rosario about someday playing for his hometown team in Toronto.
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Chicago has announced that they signed young Trinidad & Tobago defender Osei Teleford.
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The potential owners of the reborn San Jose Earthquakes want to appeal to Latino fans. Who doesn't? From the Mercury News.
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Possible stadium news in Houston from the Chronicle.
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Carolina Challenge Cup
-Saturday's scores:
Houston 2-0 Toronto
Charleston 0-1 New York
-Wednesday scores:
Toronto 2-1 New York
Houston 1-1 Charleston
-Saturday matches:
Houston v New York
Charleston v Toronto
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Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer with his analysis of USA 0-0 Guatemala.
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Here is a very interesting stat break down from Soccer America. There were 8 international friendly's played on US soil in the past week. Here are the attendance numbers and locations for those games:
-47,416 Mexico 4 Ecuador 2 (March 28 in Oakland, Calif.)
-31,547 USA 3 Ecuador 1 (March 25 in Tampa, Fla.)
-17,075 Honduras 2 El Salvador 0 (March 24 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
-15,000 Colombia 3 Switzerland 1 (March 25 in Miami, Fla.)
-12,000 Haiti 3 Panama 0 (March 24 in Miami)
-10,932 USA 0 Guatemala 0 (March 28 in Frisco, Texas)
-8,365 Honduras 2 El Salvador 0 (March 27 in Cary, N.C.)
-3,254 Switzerland 2 Jamaica 0 (March 22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
That's a total of: 145, 589
-How come 3 of those games outdrew USA v Guatemala? That is a big problem.
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Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated looks at the strength and depth of the Guadalajara team that DC will face next week in the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Luis also takes a beating from letter writers, and dishes it straight back at em.
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Santiago Alfonso at SI does a Q & A with Mexico & PSV defender Carlos Salcido.
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Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Audax Italiano 1-0 Alianza Lima
Gremio 1-0 Deportes Tolima
Mar 28
Bolivar 2-3 Cienciano
Defensor Sporting 3-0 Deportivo Pasto
Internacional 0-0 Velez Sarsfield
Mar 29
River Plate 0-0 LDU Quito
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
Mar 30
Colo Colo - Caracas
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
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Yer gonna get a kick outta this one - Rangers striker Dado Prso says his right knee is so bad that he is going to have to quit the team at the end of this season. BUUUUUUT, he would like to play in MLS or the Far East after that. What a moron. Another dude so deluded he thinks someone will pay him to do nothing. Not a chance buddy.
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Did you know that Christian Ziege had been hired as director of football at Kasey Keller's club Monchengladbach? I guess it happened about 3 weeks ago. I never heard that. I always liked him. Good luck Herr Ziege.
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A record 204 countries have registered to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, up from 199 for 2002. The first matches will be played in Oceania in August of this year.
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The Greek government has stopped play in all professional team sports throughout the country, including the football league, for at least 2 weeks, after a fan was killed in a riot at a volleyball match.
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As Leeds sit in last place and are on the verge of being relegated out of England's Championship or 2nd Division, Rick Broadbent of the Times of London tries to figure out who destroyed the once mighty club. A reader leaves a comment at the end of this article that simply says, "The Enron of football." Damn.
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Soccer America had a note today saying that the World Cup coverage by ABC has been nominated for an Emmy Award in the sports category. I hope it wasn't for Dave O'Brien and Marcello Balboa's insight.
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The Guardian has a story on Dutchman Leo Beenhakker who took Trinidad & Tobago to the last World Cup, and is now the coach in charge of resurgent Poland.
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Big Euro Matches this weekend:
Sat Mar 31
Roma v Milan
Liverpool v Arsenal
Bayern Munich v Schalke

Eredivisie top goal scorers:
25 Afonso Alves - Heerenveen
19 Blaise N'Kufo - Twente Enschede
19 Danny Koevermans - AZ Alkmaar
17 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - Ajax Amsterdam
17 Danko Lazovic - Vitesse Arnhem

Bundesliga top goal scorers:
13 Theofanis Gekas - Bochum
13 Mario Gomez - Stuttgart
12 Roy Makaay - Bayern Munich
11 Alexander Frei - Borussia Dortmund
11 Kevin Kuranyi - Schalke
11 Miroslav Klose - Werder Bremen
11 Marko Pantelic - Hertha Berlin

La Liga top goal scorers:
19 Frederic Kanoute - Sevilla
18 Diego Milito - Real Zaragoza
17 Ronaldinho - Barcelona
14 Ruud van Nistelrooy - Real Madrid
11 Fernando Morientes - Valencia

Serie A top goal scorers:
18 Francesco Totti - Roma
15 Rolando Bianchi - Reggina
15 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Inter
15 Luca Toni - Fiorentina
13 Tommaso Rocchi - Lazio
13 Adrian Mutu - Fiorentina

Premiership top goal scorers:
18 Didier Drogba - Chelsea
16 Cristiano Ronaldo - Man Utd
12 Wayne Rooney - Man Utd
12 Yakubu - Middlesbrough
12 Bennie McCarthy - Blackburn

Ligue 1 top goal scorers:
13 Steve Savidan - Valenciennes
11 Aruna Dindane - Lens
10 Fred - Lyon
10 Ismael Bangoura - Le Mans
10 Pauleta - PSG

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait - feedback from du Nord readers who saw the film

Many soccer fans in the Twin Cities packed in to 6 showings of the Zidane feature last month. It was a huge theatrical success here, but I am not sure if the customers walked away satisfied.
It was presented at the Walker Art Center, which to me gave a strong hint that it was not going to be a straight footballing movie, or a even a bio pic. I knew it was coming from a more artistic bendt. And I thought all the prerelease propaganda made that clear. But then you realize the reason most propaganda works so well is that most people don't actually read it, they just see "Zidane" and they are sold.
Myself, I really enjoyed it. Yes it tested my will at times. But good art does that to me. I try not to react immediately, but let it sit in for a few days and see if I still care or not. And I did. I thought the editing was really good, even though it started to drag about 2/3's of the way in. They used too many tricks early on that could have helped speed up the film near the end. The sound editing blew me away, and I was surprised but not shocked to find a pretty ingenius musician I worked with 10 years ago was a consultant, Kevin Shields.
It was cool to see a true modern star of the sport through someone elses very different perspective.
Overall, was it great? No. Was it good? Most assuredly. Would I see it again? For sure. And I think you should too - as a fan of the beautiful game.

Here is what other du Nord readers thought:




Jesse, from the Twin Cities

For me the experience was a bit frustrating and I find myself of two minds about the film. When I heard the description that the film focused on Zidane and his play in a game from start to finish, I expected something that would allow the viewer to get closer to Zidane's perspective. With the title, "Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait", I expected to get a view of the player that would give a sense of who he is as at least a player if not as a person. What I got instead was a lot of seeing Zidane reacting to things that were invisible to me. There simply was no context for his actions eliminating the possibility of coming to some understanding of him as a player. Overall it seemed tedious to watch Zidane stand around spitting and wiping sweat off his mug for 60/85 minutes of the game.

The sound of the film, unlike seemingly everyone else, bothered me a bit as well. Obviously it was technically done very well to be able to pick out every expectorate to issue from Zidane's mouth, every kick of the ball, etc amongst the crowd noise and everything else, but it also was a bit too isolating for me. To my tastes it made him seem disconnected from what was going on around him. And maybe he was that day, maybe it's just my own failing to not be able to understand a person without seeing their choices and actions in context.

However, as you said after the film, we did get a sense of who Zidane was as a player on that particular day in that through most of the first half he simply didn't put much effort into the game. He also seemed particularly joyless until late in the game when he joked around a bit with Roberto Carlos. It certainly seemed to explain a great deal about why he decided to retire not long after. It was also somewhat prescient with him getting bent out of shape over a relatively minor incident and getting sent off for taking a swing at an opponent. The selected quotes that were displayed at various points of the game also gave a feel for how Zidane felt more generally about playing in front of thousands of people and how the crowd affected him on the field.

Another thing the film did well was to put the game and Zidane into a more global context with the half-time photo montage. I found it interesting to see all of the things that happened on that day, none of which are remembered specifically by people not directly involved, a car bomb in Baghdad, a search and rescue mission for Turkish minors, 300 frogs in Germany mysteriously swelling to three times their normal size and exploding. But there in the aftermath of the car bombing on the edge of the frame is a Baghdadi wearing a Zidane shirt.

So perhaps the film did provide a nice snapshot of him during the final stages of his career, it just wasn't what I was looking for out of the film. It's really too bad none of the Thunder players came out to chat with us. I really kind of wonder what, if anything, a pro player, even at the USL D1 level, would get from the film that a fan wouldn't. Anyway, those are my hopefully semi-coherent thoughts on the film.



Ethan F

I have mixed feelings about the Zidane movie. I was hoping to see the intensity, focus, speed, physicality, finesse, skill, vision, and beauty of the game at the highest level. I thought that the movie did a good job of showing the first four, but I thought the moments of the last four were too few. This is partly due to Zidane's passive involvement in this particular game, but also due to the excessive focus on his feet, shins, and face.

This was clearly not intended to be a soccer movie, but a movie about a person. I am fine with that, but I got bored after a while and would have been much happier if they had reduced the number of walking/standing scenes and shown more of the great bird's eye full-field camera shots. That camera really showed the movement, skill, and teamwork necessary at football's top levels.

I thought that the best part of the whole thing might have been the spectacle. I went with six of my friends and it was clearly the place to be if you play or follow soccer. I saw people I hadn't seen in years; brought out not by another Walker movie, but by the chance to see a unique soccer experience. I think that most people would have liked for the movie to be a little more soccer and little less Walker, but at least it was provocative.



Todd B

I managed to sneak into the late show on Saturday and I'm so glad I did, as I didn't realize that it had sold out. I thought it was fascinating and a little maddening. The latter is likely a byproduct of my American upbringing - by shutting you out of the flow/detail of the game it denied you the visceral thrill of most sporting movies (and events) and while I'm certain that was a deliberate choice by the filmmakers it nevertheless frustrated me a little. That is really a minor quibble though, as images from the film continue to dance through my head even now (particularly the shots of his feet and how he would drag his toes as he walked - by the end of the film he wasn't doing this anymore). It seemed very much like a movie about a guy at work for much of it. he was clearly engaged and focused and knew what he was doing but there was an 'another day at the office' quality to his play. It was also interesting how little he spoke during the entire match and how little expression he exhibited (only the one smile to his teammate [Ronaldo?]) (editors note: actually it was Roberto Carlos). I also found it difficult to really follow what happened at the end there when he got tossed. I guess a lot of stuff was simmering under the surface - and we know how that usually works out (see World Cup final). I don't know if it was really a great "football" movie, as the game seemed secondary (or even tertiary) but it was very thought provoking.
Some additional random thoughts:
-At least 2 couples sitting near me left by the midway point. Not sure what they were expecting.
-I loved the music. Haven't listened much to Mogwai but I downloaded the soundtrack (legally) when I got home.
-Waiting to pay for parking the guy behind me asked if it was what I thought it would be. I told him that yeah, basically. I then asked him the same thing. He said it was what he expected, only not as cool.



Steve W

I was torn. I liked the fact that ‘art’ was being done with soccer as the subject. I liked the fact that we could bring the kids to The Walker to see something related to soccer. My problem, and that of most of the people we went with, was I am more of a soccer fan than an art fan. I appreciated what they were trying to do: They would contrast the pixilated TV vs. the large, real experience of being on the field. They would look at the cameras following the constant action vs. Zidane walking around not involved.
However said I would have enjoyed it more if it was there live or even watching just a televised performance of the game. I missed much of the game watching Zidane sweat. Crucial moments were either off camera or blocked by the wrong angle or other players and weren’t clear to me.
My second issue with it is I thought I understood the concept and didn’t think they were true to it. I thought I would see 17 cameras, synchronized and following Zidane in almost real time through every moment. Instead if felt kind of produced in that there is no way Zidane moved so little, especially in the first half and sweated like that. There were times we saw things 3 or 4 different ways (TV, other camera angles) and that time with Zidane. I tried to find the game on the internet but haven’t been able to yet. So I left wondering what I missed.



Ken the Keeper

I am by no means a movie buff, much less a critic. But in terms of film as an art, I would say that I felt the movie struggled at times. In fact I would say that they were fortunate to have chosen a game where Zidane is red-carded as a full 90 minutes of simply focusing on one player would have been too much. The music certainly helped to break up the monotony of the setting and to set a tone. I also believe that, although interesting, some of the occasional subtitles, including portions taken from Zidane interviews were, at times, oddly placed and seemingly unfitting for the chosen moment.
I would also expect that there were many soccer fans who attended who walked away disappointed, and since seeing the film I have spoken with a few. I think that is mostly their own fault for expecting that the film would provide some broader insight into Zidane’s skills and abilities on the field. And also for not being willing to let go of the actual match being played and try to focus on the film as an experiment in human motion and form within a broader context which is unseen but known
One thing that I did anticipate about the film, and which I do believe it delivered on, was the experience of being one player of 22 on a large field, and still the sense of isolation and loneliness that one can experience as a football player
As a goalie this is something that I can especially relate to as I spend every game with my teammates backs facing me and as someone who is usually ignored except when my services are required.
But I think this sense of isolation and loneliness can also be experienced by field players who often can go for minutes without any interaction with other players on the field.
And when they are playing in front of thousands of fans that sense of loneliness can be heightened due to the inability to communicate with other players via any other method than hand movements and head gestures.
So they often move about, seemingly uninvolved, waiting for the movement of the ball to involve them.
And then when the ball does come to their feet the isolation is even more heightened as all eyes are on that one player to see if they do the “right thing” with the ball.
Not doing so leaves one even more isolated.
I believe the film was able to express these feelings to those who had the capacity to understand them.
Out of 5 stars I give it a 2.7



dan g

the film was too slow, as was Zidane, until those moments when either he or the sound editing were dynamic. i thought he stood around a lot but his experience(and skill) also allowed him to capitalize on his chances. he seemed unexcited when he set up the first goal with a brilliant move beating several defenders. more of the same when the go ahead goal is scored late in the match.....but shit man, when that scuffle broke out he was all over it like jamie watson on -the -ground! Zidane ran many yards and promptly threw his body into the shoving match...now he was excited!!! thinking back on wc 'o2 when he stomped on the saudi's leg and then his grand exit in germany it was revealing to me to see him show more emotion for fighting than for goals, victories or his team. he's a fantastic player but struggles with his anger( unlike michael richards who struggles with racism not anger). as the film went on the soundtrack became more annoying but earlier on it was strangely effective. i found myself thinking about using the bathroom and staying awake in a warm and crowded theater...i can't say i'd recommend it but i wouldn't aggressively discourage anyone from going. ciao brucio.....dang



Our Donovan

Once upon a time in the world there were highlight videos of World Cups; the best, in my opinion, being the '82 WC with Sean Connery doing the commentary with great camera and sound work. In that vein Zidane ranks quite high. The sound at times was great and the camera work at times was great. I expect to get the DVD if I can and I would show portions of it to my grandkids and other non-soccer types.

But, this movie was about one guy who was not in his best form and it got a bit long and dreary. However, the concept is good. One match, one player and we'll just show it to you come what may. So, the fault dear Brutus may be in us, not in the filmmakers. After all, why isn't the end-of-a-career match of a great player just as compelling as seeing him in his prime.

We (and not just the Sports Center we) are geared to mindless highlights that, in the end, tell us little about what we are seeing. Then again, even though I can't stand Sports Center or the FSC equivalent, during the last half hour or so I was both very impressed with what I was seeing and wishing it would just end.



jim

it would be hard to call it a film about a soccer player. more or less it documented an athlete doing what his job. if you were a non soccer fan, you probably left disappointed or fell asleep during the screening (which i saw numerous people do anyways).
the text that was on the bottom during the course of the film was visually represented accurately. editing represented the game being fragments of memories quite well. considering the task, 17 cameras and all, the film was quite well edited pushing this point through. but as a soccer fan, i would have liked to see more of the ball. most of the shots seemed to be of the waist up, which added an interesting perspective, changing the focus of the game and all. and the feet! the dragging of the toes seemed to really bring Zidane back down to earth, trying to place him with us common folks. or it just showed that he was too lazy or exhausted to lift up his feet all the way. there were numerous times i found myself smiling from a farmers blow or from a rough tackle, but its the little things that count in football right?
the crowd was good. many many kids there. id love to chat with a few of them and get their take on it. if i was 12 and saw that, id probably hate soccer afterwards though.



Steve L

I thought it was fantastic, though I am a bit biased, being a huge Zidane fan.

The early shot of the stadium from field level was amazing!

The first part was slow paced with Zizou not on the ball much. As purely a sports film it would have been boring, but as a cinema portrait it was very interesting and contemplative.

When the pace picked up it just sucked me right in. I even found myself holding my breath at times. It was beautifully filmed, great soundtrack, and I think it managed to show many sides of the man.
Loved it. Want to own it.




Martha Fischer from The Offside - Serie A

I saw the movie at the Toronto Film Festival over the summer, and it pretty much blew me away -- I was impressed as much by its emotional power as anything else. (Rather than babble a new, I'll just point you to my review-- make of it what you will.)

The crowd was very cool and very mixed, as I'm sure you observed: In line, I was standing between a woman in a Zidane jersey and a man who knew nothing about soccer but was passionate about video art.

The Dreaded Backwash News

Allen Hopkins at Soccernet says midfielder Clint Mathis has been shipped by Colorado to the Red Bulls. (details to follow)


USA 0-0 Guatemala - last night:

-The du Nord Three Stars Of The Game:
3. Frank Simek - a very nice debut and showed that attacking desire needed by great outside backs.
2. Justin Mapp - ran his ass off on the left side, cut inside when he needed too and always made the other team nervous, plus his defense was better than I have ever seen it.
1. Guatemala defense - totally stuffed the USA offense with their tight marking and closed lanes.
-Others in the running for the third spot: Jimmy Conrad & Michael Bradley

It was bound to happen sooner or later.... yes, the match was a clinker. It was set up perfectly for a let down. The USA played the same opponent on the same pitch a year ago and easily won 4-0. Then the coach sends 4 top players back to their clubs and brings in several inexperienced players. Overconfidence, plus revenge from the opponent, plus inexperience = unflattering results. No surprise there. The USA team showed no real patience to make the one great move to set themselves up. And this worked perfectly for Guate who sat back and hacked like crazy.
-I was told by a couple different people now that even though the crowd was just under 11,000 they were quite boisterous. Ok. But wouldn't 20,000 boisterous people be a lot better. Shame on US Soccer for doing such a lame job with these games.
-Taylor Twellman had been in the first 11 for last night, but it turns out he got the flu and was not able to go. Bummer.
-5 other players did not see the field - Steve Cherundolo, DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman, Brian Carroll & Brad Guzan.
-Post game quotes from USA players and coaches via US Soccer.
-The shut out was the 46th of Kasey Keller's USA career.
-There were great reviews of the condition of the field itself at Pizza Hut Park.

-Match Reports:
Fort Worth Star Telegram - Tobias Xavier Lopez
Dallas Morning News + Side article on Kenny Cooper & Carlos Ruiz
3rd Degree
AFP
US Players Assoc - Ken Pendleton analyzes the coaching job
Soccernet - Jen Chang (blog)
Soccernet - Steve Davis (with player ratings)
Soccer Times - Robert Wagman (analysis + player ratings)
Soccer Insider - Steve Goff (includes player ratings)
Soccer America - Ridge Mahoney + player ratings
Orlando Sentinel - blog with some hilarious observations like, "90 minutes felt like 300", & "3 steps forward, 1 step back".
-Marc Connolly of the US Players Assoc with a raving article on Michael Bradley.
-FIFA.com writes about the mixed results from Team USA this week, and the overall direction of the team.
-The official team blog. Which they FINALLY updated.

So check this out, The USA U20 team played a match v Haiti right before USA v Guatemala last night. I figured they would play the Haitian U20's. Oh no, turns out they played the full Haiti team. The same Haiti that beat Panama 3-0 on Saturday. And our boys did em 2-1. Yeah, that's right. Our U20's beat Haiti! As they should! Goals by Freddy Adu (PK) and the winner by Gabriel Ferrari! Excellent.
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The deal is done. DC United paid to get Fred2 released early from his contract at Melbourne (even though the season ended over a month ago they were gonna make him stay till late June). He has his papers in order and is ready to roll. They will need him v Chivas next Tues. Let's hope Melbourne never needs any favors from a MLS team. Ever.
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Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - rumor from waaaaaaay south of the border days Boca Juniors are interested in KC striker Eddie Johnson. I say sell sell sell! But it won't even come close to happening.
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More rumor mongering comes from Glasgow Scotland that says Rangers will be in LA to play the Galaxy on May 23.
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Reader Evan checks in with a New England preseason factoid: New England Revolution finished their pre-season schedule of matches last night (3/28), going undefeated in six matches, and outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 21-3. Rookie forward Adam Cristman led all goal-scorers with 5 goals and 4 assists (in only 4 matches).
-The New Orleans Times Picayune with a report from the game.
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Hey Dallas fans - remember Joselito Vaca? He scored Bolivia's goal in a 0-1 victory in South Africa! Ole!
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The Deseret Morning News chats with one of the best unsung young talents in MLS last year, Salt Lake defender Willis Forko.
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The Salt Lake Tribune decided to run their Real Salt Lake season preview a week early for some reason. Who knows why. Go to this first article, then read about 5 or 6 others in the left hand column.
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Andrea Canales of the LA Soccer News talks to Galaxy coach Frank Yallop after the teams Puerto Rico trip.
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Dylan Hernandez with the latest on a proposed San Jose stadium deal, from the San Jose Mercury News. Dylan covered the old Earthquakes team and it's always good to see his name in print again.
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The Toronto Globe & Mail with a report from TFC's win over New York. Their first win in preseason, making it their first win ever.
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The Daily Texan has a nice feature story on a man who works very hard to promote the beautiful game in south Texas - Glenn Davis. The Glenn Davis that writes for the Houston Chronicle, does the Soccer Hour radio show (and soon a TV show), and does commentary for MLS broadcasts on HDNet. He is ubiquitous, and deserving of praise.
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Carolina Challenge Cup
-Last Saturday's scores:
Houston 2-0 Toronto
Charleston 0-1 New York
-Wednesday scores:
Toronto 2-1 New York
Houston 1-1 Charleston
-Saturday matches:
Houston v New York
Charleston v Toronto
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Two rich bastards couldn't come to an agreement and now First Division team Virginia Beach is history. Just like that. The league rebuked their franchise and tossed em out of the league. With less than a month till opening day I can see why the league wanted an answer on the team finances and did not wait any longer to pull the plug. Brutal story. This will cause a trickle down in changes to all First Div team schedules.
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Yanks Abroad says American midfielder Brian West is back training at Fredrikstad in Norway after many injury problems.
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CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and last:
Thur Mar 22
Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica 4-0 New Zealand - Alvaro Saborio with 2 goals, Alonso Solis & Bryan Ruiz with the other 2 for CR.
Panama 0-3 Haiti - goals by Eliphene Cadet, Fecien Brunel & Pierre-Roland Saint-Jean
Guadeloupe 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago - both Guade goals by Xavier Bematol, T & T goals by Christian Baptiste & Andre Toussaint.
Honduras 2-0 El Salvador - both Hondu goals by Carlos Olivia
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda 0-3 Canada - goals by Attiba Huchinson, Tomasz Radzinski & Paul Stalteri.
Mexico 2-1 Paraguay - both Mexi goals by Jared Borgetti, Para goal by Roque Santa Cruz
Barbados 0-0 Guatemala
USA 3-1 Ecuador - 3 USA goals by Landon Donovan, Ecu goal by Felipe Caicedo.
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica 1-1 Panama - Luton Shelton scored for Jamaica & Jose Luis Garces for Panama.
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador 0-2 Honduras - Both goals by Jairo Martinez
Wed Mar 28
Chile 1-1 Costa Rica - Reinaldo Navia scored first for Chile, and Rolando Fonseca tied it for CR. It was the 1000th goal in CR national team history.
Mexico 4-2 Ecuador (see below for details)
USA 0-0 Guatemala - ugh
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And you thought Landon Donovan scored quickly against Ecuador - 42 seconds into the game. Well Mexico's Paco Palencia topped that by a mile! He scored only 29 seconds into the match last night. Ecuador fought back and even took the lead. Tenorio scored in the 44th and Espinoza in the 55th. But Mexi came back strong in the final 20 minutes with goals by Rafa Marquez, Omar Bravo and finally Bozo Bautista for a 4-2 final score. Over 47,000 attended the match.
-Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a match report.
-Here is a very interesting photo op from the game: long time Mexican star Ramon Ramierez was honored on the field before game last night. Here he is posing with his family, plus an unknown dude on the far right, new DC United & SF Giants owner Will Chang, and SF Giants slugger Barry Bonds, who is wearing a Mexico scarf!!!
-The San Francisco Chronicle has a story on the amazing crowd on hand. (This is why some soccer fans in Dallas should be embarrassed. 11,000 v 47,000! Are you kidding me.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Audax Italiano 1-0 Alianza Lima
Gremio 1-0 Deportes Tolima
Mar 28
Bolivar 2-3 Cienciano
Defensor Sporting 3-0 Deportivo Pasto
Internacional 0-0 Velez Sarsfield
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
Mar 29
River Plate - LDU Quito
Colo Colo - Caracas
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Valencia striker Fernando Morientes separated his shoulder in the Spain 1-0 win over Iceland, and will miss his clubs Champions League match next week at Chelsea.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

England who beat Andorra 0-3 last night moved all their excess players and staff off the team bench during the match because they were being heckled so badly, BY THEIR OWN FANS! Wow.
-The brilliant Barry Glendenning at the Guardian says England have the kind of fans they deserve. That is not a compliment.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune rounds up last nights Euro qualifiers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sadly Diego Maradona has crashed back into the hospital in very bad shape due to "alcoholism, poor diet & smoking". Nothing new here.

"Quick report from Frisco, TX and the USA vs Guatemala game"

A reader named Alex, from Dallas, attended last nights USA v Guatemala game. These are his thoughts on the proceedings:


I went berserk when I found out we were getting this game several months ago and I sprung for the best seats in the stadium - including "the exclusive" Verizon Wireless Club high above the stadium (where the view is great, the beer is not bad for $5, and the players sometimes go after the games).
Locally, of course there was zero USSF marketing for this game so when I heard the rumors of ticket sales lagging last week (6000 as of Fri was what I heard), it did not surprise me considering this is the same game as last year here and also a midweek game, and on ESPN2.
But a US game is a US game, and I was very fired up to get out there and wear the colors and get my cheer-on with a friend of mine who had never been to a soccer game.

Pre-game, there was not a big serious "vibe" in the stadium and it felt like a friendly scrimmage.
A Bob Bradley "clincher" game for the job?
You would never have guessed it.
But a Carlos Ruiz game is always going to have it's share of controversies, and tonight's was no exception, as the Guatemalan side came out gunning for a tie, which produced a game devoid of a ton of excitement.
Clint Dempsey is a guy everybody loves here and seeing him take a shot in the first half (similar to his Poland goal, no?) may have been the biggest highlight.
The new guys, DeMerit, Simek, Bradley, all seemed to play well.
All the local Dallas soccer deities were out in force - Buzz from 3rd Degree, Kenny Cooper Snr, Mike Renshaw (former US and NASL player), Hitchcock (FC Dallas GM), and even several local sports radio guys who never talk MLS but salivate over Arena Football (??!) (including Bob Sturm of The Ticket).

Many brews were consumed as the second half started and Pescadito increased his dramatics, and there was really one guy people wanted to see get in the game, Kenny Cooper Jnr.
With dozens of family and friends in the stadium - actually sitting near me - the place started to rock a bit as Kenny entered the game.
I was actually grabbing another beer at the bar (...notice a theme here?) when I heard "...Kenny's getting into the game.." and several people at the bar got up to walk outside to see him in action.
Kenny is really loved here in Dallas and has a ton of friends and relatives at every game and it's a joy as a fan to watch him develop and get better and you could feel all that in the stadium.
Physically, the guy towers over people and there was a real sense of "...now the Big Guy is in the game to take charge...!"
The guy has done a lot of FC Dallas promotions around the area, and several people around me had met him before, and I've seen him hanging around the park myself several times with his Dad (legendary Dallas Tornado's GK; Pele scores on him in his first Cosmos game in "Once in a Lifetime").
As the game wound down without a score, several people around me questioned how we rocked Ecuador and seemingly struggled with Guatemala.
But that seemed to be The Guats gameplan all along - there wasn't going to be another 4-0 thrashing like last year.

One thing about soccer though, there is a big online community out there and I met several people at the bar who post on bigsoccer, are on myspace (laugh all you want), or some form of online soccer community.
I was introduced to a couple guys as "arwIII1970" - oh, then they know who I am, which is funny.
I stayed at the bar awhile hoping to see Gulati, or Arena, or Wynalda or even a player, but pretty much everyone got out of Dodge quickly.
This being North Dallas though, of course there were several $40,000 "millionaires" at the bar with their 20 year old blonde stripper girlfriends, so that was nice.
Overall, the game was a bit of a washout and the turnout could have been better, but perhaps a strange defensive match is what's needed (for experience sake) before the upcoming Gold Cup and the trip to South America.
This US team could be the guys going to South America so they will need to work on getting scores against the "Bunker Inn" style of play they faced tonight.

How did my friend like his first game?
I'm not sure he found it super exciting, and I felt a bit down as we walked out to the car, geared up for the extended tollway ride south.
Then he said to me "...you know what would be really cool? We should go see a game where people go crazy for it, like in Germany...."
Then he said "...we have Beckham tickets right? Ok, I want to come when the place goes nuts..."
So maybe he did have an ok time.

Alex Whyte
Dallas, TX

Scores From Euro 2008 Qualifiers Last Night

Wednesday March 28:
Czech Republic 1-0 Cyprus
Ukraine 1-0 Lithuania
Hungary 3-0 Moldova
Bulgaria 0-0 Albania
Romania 3-0 Luxembourg
Israel 4-0 Estonia
Malta 0-1 Greece
Republic of Ireland 1-0 Slovakia
Liechtenstein 1-0 Latvia
Northern Ireland 2-1 Sweden
Azerbaijan 1-0 Finland
Georgia 3-1 Faroe Islands
Turkey 2-2 Norway
Wales 3-0 San Marino
Poland 1-0 Armenia
Serbia 1-1 Portugal
Slovenia 0-1 Netherlands
Italy 2-0 Scotland
Andorra 0-3 England

Here are the up to date group standings.

The next rounds of games are June 2 & 6.

Coffee Smells Like The Monkey Cage At The Zoo News

You want America to start taking Team USA more seriously? Then the pro clubs should stop scheduling games (preseason friendly's count) on a night when the USA is playing. We have the USA taking on Guatemala tonight in Dallas while at the same time we have MLS clubs New England, Columbus, New York, Houston, and Toronto (do they count?) all playing matches tonight. Couldn't they have played them last night, or tomorrow night instead? Seriously.


US Soccer - friendly v Guatemala - tonight at 8pm central time!
-Team USA will wear the Royal Blue with pinstripes shirts again tonight.
-Andrea Canales at Top Drawer Soccer talks to US Soccer President Sunil Gulati about Bob Bradley's job status. There is nothing new here, but it's a confirmation of what the real plan is for officially naming a head coach.
-Brian Ching is definitely NOT suiting up tonight. He has headed back to the Houston preseason training.
-Heath Pearce has a badly bruised foot and will not play tonight either.
-More interviews from US Soccer - Bob Bradley, Landon Donovan & Kasey Keller. Download or listen via podcast.
-The team blog.
-Jack Bell at the New York Times previews the game and asks again about the "interim" situation.
Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram previews the match and focuses on Dallas forward Kenny Cooper.
-Gabriel Cabarrouy of the Dallas Morning News with the preview-Cooper combo too.
-Marc Connolly at the US Players Assoc with a nice story on midfielder Benny Feilhaber who is with the senior USA team for the first time and did very well in the game on Sunday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mia Hamm gave birth to twin daughters on Tuesday. Waddaya think their names are?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno & Andrea Canales at Sideline Views with an audio link to a 2 part interview they did with Cobi Jones a few weeks ago, talking about Team USA, and especially v Mexico. He really sounds fiery when talking about Rafa Marquez in part 2! Gee I wonder why? This is where those great quotes came from that were in the press.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If people out there are interested in joining a fantasy league for MLS, some of my Minnesota Thunder fan friends have a Division you can join at MFLS- Minnesota Thunder. Sing up now!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Soccer America's MLS Confidential is chock full of details on the New York Red Bulls chase for another international striker - this time it's Juan Pablo Angel from Aston Villa! And more news on San Jose re-re-animated.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bob Luder of the KC Star says the Kansas City Wizards just want the season to start. Will they be any good this year? They have missed the playoffs 2 years in a row, but their old questionable ownership situation has now been answered.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Charleston Post & Courier with a spotlight on Red Bulls midfielder Claudio Reyna. It's cool to see him getting more of the attention he has deserved and not gotten over the past decade.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The new in-house promo spots that ESPN is going to be showing to pimp MLS are here for the viewing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Toronto does Colorado one better - They spell out their name and use their shield in the seat layout on one side of the field, then have a maple leaf on the other side, and their sponsor name on the enclosed end! Maximum coolness. Chicago?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tom Dunmore at the The Offside -Chicago Fire blog has an in-depth Q & A with former Chicago GM Peter Wilt. It's not hard to get Peter to talk, especially about his former team. You would swear he still works there. This is good stuff. Thanks Tom.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It feels like Landon Donovan went out and got himself a press agent or something? 4 publications splash stories about the Golden Boy on the same day. (I bet he is gonna get sick of telling that lame story about how marriage is making him mature. If he ever gets divorced will he used that as another maturity ladder rung.)
-Jonah Freedman at Sport Illustrated.
-Phil Collin at the Daily Breeze.
-Steve Davis at Soccernet.
-Luis Arroyave at the Chicago Tribune.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The New Orleans Time Picayune with a story on the New Orleans Shell Shockers PDL team who will play a friendly v New England tonight in Baton Rouge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FC Dallas is still taking a long hard look at Argentine midfielder Pablo Richetti. Odds are good that he will soon be on their roster. As I have written before, he played last year for Quilmes in Argentina. From MLSnet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Salt Lake is chasing after young Cote d'Ivoire defender Jean-Martial Kipre. (I am sorry to say that I can't remember where this came from, and right now I am too lazy to track it down. Plus, I am an amateur.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MLS CBW Don Garber was in Portland yesterday taking the cities expansion temperature.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Your Captain Needs You, the blog that was started to build awareness of a potential Claudio Reyna documentary called The Goal, now has a My Space page.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A great-stupid video clip from BobbyBowell.com of DC striker Luciano Emilio with his new (stolen) catch phrase - It's In The Net.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DC played a scrimmage match against Tecos in Mexico last night. Steven Goff of Soccer Insider with details.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Bradley's First XI: All-Decade Team. From MLSnet.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carolina Challenge Cup
Saturday's scores:
Houston 2-0 Toronto
Charleston 0-1 New York
Tonights matches:
Toronto v New York
Houston v Charleston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Sacramento Bee has a little preseason preview of the new California Victory of the USL First Division.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robert Zeigler of Top Drawer Soccer has a Q & A with young American striker Gabe Ferrari of Sampdoria.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and last:
Thur Mar 22
Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica 4-0 New Zealand - Alvaro Saborio with 2 goals, Alonso Solis & Bryan Ruiz with the other 2 for CR.
Panama 0-3 Haiti - goals by Eliphene Cadet, Fecien Brunel & Pierre-Roland Saint-Jean
Guadeloupe 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago - both Guade goals by Xavier Bematol, T & T goals by Christian Baptiste & Andre Toussaint.
Honduras 2-0 El Salvador - both Hondu goals by Carlos Olivia
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda 0-3 Canada - goals by Attiba Huchinson, Tomasz Radzinski & Paul Stalteri.
Mexico 2-1 Paraguay - both Mexi goals by Jared Borgetti, Para goal by Roque Santa Cruz
Barbados 0-0 Guatemala
USA 3-1 Ecuador - 3 USA goals by Landon Donovan, Ecu goal by Felipe Caicedo.
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica 1-1 Panama - Luton Shelton scored for Jamaica & Jose Luis Garces for Panama.
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador 0-2 Honduras - Both goals by Jairo Martinez
Wed Mar 28
Chile v Costa Rica
Mexico v Ecuador
USA v Guatemala
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Grahame Jones of the LA Times took a trek up to Oakland for tonight's Mexico v Ecuador match and talked to Mexicoach Hugo Sanchez.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com with an article on Stuttgart's two Mexican players Ricardo Osorio & Pavel Pardo. (Pardo is a big fave at du Nord.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Audax Italiano 1-0 Alianza Lima
Gremio 1-0 Deportes Tolima
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
Mar 28
Bolivar - Cienciano
Defensor Sporting - Deportivo Pasto
Internacional - Velez Sarsfield
Mar 29
River Plate - LDU Quito
Colo Colo - Caracas
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Marcela Mora y Araujo of the Guardian writes about one of the great underappreciated hero's of Argentine soccer, Mario Kempes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Preview: This coming Sunday at the EPL Talk podcast, the interview guest will be du Nord fave writer Simon Kuper! Hooray Beer indeed. Thanks to the Gaffer for doing the interview, I can't wait to hear it.

Thunder Home Opener Will Again Be Free Of Charge

Great news for all you cheapskates out there. My fave team the Minnesota Thunder will again open the gates for free to their home opener on May 6th and ask that instead of paying for a ticket you give the money to their charity Thunder P.L.U.S. It was a huge success last season and I hope to see you all there at the Jimmy.

Sunday May 6 - 5pm
Minnesota Thunder v Vancouver Whitecaps
James Griffin Stadium
St Paul Minnesota

Didn't I Just Meet You About Five Minutes Ago News

As if the shirt in this picture isn't cool enough, that is a very young Didier Drogba in the background! Thanks to Ari for this amazing find.


US Soccer - friendly v Guatemala:
-Yanks Abroad has confirmation of a vague Heath Pearce injury. Sore foot, is the medical diagnosis. Like the English favorite - dead leg. More details to come I presume. Or maybe not.
-US Soccer with video highlights and locker room talk from USA 3-1 Ecuador.
-There are rumors swirling that ticket sales for the game are less than stellar. Sad. There has also been a lot of rain in the Dallas area.
-Looks like Brian Ching may not play after getting kicked in the face v Ecuador. He was attempting to head a shot on goal when a defender wheeled and smacked him square in the nose. There was a lot of blood, but no breaks. He came back on to set up Donovan's second goal a few minutes later.
-The team blog. Still not updated since Saturday evening.
-The USA U20 team will be taking on Haiti in Dallas tomorrow night just prior to the senior side match.
-You will be able to see that U20 game streaming live on the internets via US Soccer at 5pm central on Wednesday. They will also broadcast the men's practice session from Frisco today at 5:15pm central.
-Steve Davis at Soccernet writes about the top individual performances of all time for Team USA. Where does Donovan's Sunday hat trick rank? (I can proudly say that I witnessed #1 on this list with my own 2 eyes, and it was all that and more!)
-Davis also looks at the other newcomers who might get a shot on the field in tomorrow nights game. Also for Soccernet.
-Andrea Canales at LA Soccer News talks to USA U17 coach John Hackworth about what he see's today in former U17 star Landon Donovan.
-Paul Gardner of the New York Sun with a rave about Landon Donovan's game on Sunday, and a tip of the hat to debutant Benny Feilhaber.
-Ives Galarcep at the North Jersey Herald also heaps the praise on Donovan, and analyzes the performances of a few others too.
-My friend Joel was another of the many very unsatisfied customers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Sunday. He posted his tale of the ticketing debacle on Big Soccer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Word from CONCACAF says Gold Cup tickets go on sale Thursday. Of course there has been nothing from US Soccer about this. WTF?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

ESPN reports that it is 95 percent sold out of it's advertising for the MLS season, and completely sold out for the first quarter of the season.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Dell'apa at the Boston Globe writing on the New England Rev's preseason trip to New Orleans - it's turned into more than playing a couple matches. A great article.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Was there more to the story last week when Rev's midfielder Joe Franchio made the Boston gossip columns following a run in with local cops over expired license plates, in which he supposedly "beached" his car? Andrew Hush at Soccer New England is reporting that Franchino has been given an indefinite leave of absence by the team to deal with personal matters. I really hope he can work things out, whatever it might be. Sad.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to Tony Meola who is pissed off about the way the Red Bulls treated him and finally showed him the door last fall. He puts it all on Bruce Arena.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LA Soccer News has a Q & A with 12 season Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

FIFA.com has a Q & A with Claudio Reyna about his new journey in his homeland.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Andrea Canales at Sideline Views translates some quotes from DC United star Christian "Danger" Gomez that he gave to Mexican magazine Medio Tiempo.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Chicago Tribune has a story on AEG's assistance to the city of Los Angeles in their bid for the 2016 Olympics. Part of the plan is a big upgrade on all the Home Depot Center facilities.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ian Plenderleith of the US Players Assoc looks at the problem that should be sitting at #1 of MLS's list of things to work very hard on: How to make the games better.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As part of this years Tribeca Film Festival in Manhattan, there will be a brand new segment called the Sports Film Festival. Here are some details.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and next:
Thur Mar 22
Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica 4-0 New Zealand - Alvaro Saborio with 2 goals, Alonso Solis & Bryan Ruiz with the other 2 for CR.
Panama 0-3 Haiti - goals by Eliphene Cadet, Fecien Brunel & Pierre-Roland Saint-Jean
Guadeloupe 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago - both Guade goals by Xavier Bematol, T & T goals by Christian Baptiste & Andre Toussaint.
Honduras 2-0 El Salvador - both Hondu goals by Carlos Olivia
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda 0-3 Canada - goals by Attiba Huchinson, Tomasz Radzinski & Paul Stalteri.
Mexico 2-1 Paraguay - both Mexi goals by Jared Borgetti, Para goal by Roque Santa Cruz
Barbados 0-0 Guatemala
USA 3-1 Ecuador - 3 USA goals by Landon Donovan, Ecu goal by Felipe Caicedo.
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica 1-1 Panama - Luton Shelton scored for Jamaica & Jose Luis Garces for Panama.
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador v Honduras
Wed Mar 28
Chile v Costa Rica
Mexico v Ecuador
USA v Guatemala
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Montreal (yes, the First Division team) played Honduras to a 1-1 draw in Ft Lauderdale on Sunday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Colo Colo - Caracas
Gremio - Deportes Tolima
Mar 28
Bolivar - Cienciano
Defensor Sporting - Deportivo Pasto
Internacional - Velez Sarsfield
Mar 29
Audax Italiano - Alianza Lima
River Plate - LDU Quito
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune with a look at new UEFA president and former French star Michel Platini.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise surveys the landscape of who's hot and who's not in international futbol right now.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The William Morris Agency wants to spearhead a movie project on the life of Pele. He is also one of their clients.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

And a Diego Maradona movie is being released Friday in Italy. Not surprisingly it's called La Mano di Dio - The Hand of God. From the AFP.

Ever Changing News

TV commentator Dave O'Brien to former USA coach Bruce Arena: "You must be a big fan of The Boss (Bruce Springsteen". To which Arena replies emphatically: "No!"


USA 3-1 Ecuador - Goals: USA - Landon Donovan 1, 66, 67 Ecuador - Felipe Caicedo 11

The du Nord Three (Four) Stars of the Game:
3. Brian Ching - he doesn't always play that good for the USA but he sure teams up with Donovan well. And any guy that will take a kick to the face for his team, stuff cotton up his nose and come back out to play even better is a 3rd star in my book every time.
2. Benny Feilhaber/Michael Bradley - this combo platter of defensive midfielders took over the game in the second half. They shut Ecuador down. They were also cool and calm on the ball (something we can't always say for two other fave's Mastroeni & Clark). These two are good.
1. Landon Donovan - waddaya want. Three goals, great runs, great passes, some defense and the captain's armband, adds up to a supreme performance.

-Match Reports & stuff like that"
Tampa Tribune w/ photos, video and audio
Bradenton Herald
This American Soccer - Adam Spangler analysis
Soccer Times - Robert Wagman + player ratings
Soccernet - Jeff Carlisle + player ratings
Soccernet - Jen Chang blog
Soccernet - Ives Galarcep analysis
AP
US Soccer
Soccer America - Ridge Mahoney player ratings
St Petersburg Times + game notes
Andrea Canales of LA Soccer News gives us a recap of press from leading Ecuadorian daily newspaper Hoy. Thank you Andrea!

More total coverage from USA v Ecuador and looking forward to USA v Gautemala on Wednesday:
-Others strongly considered for the third spot on the 3 Stars list were: Ulises de la Cruz of Ecuador, and Jimmy Conrad & Tim Howard of the USA.
-Landcakes adds to his career goal total and will probably become the all time leading USA scorer at age 25! What can you say? He is now tied with Brian McBride for 2nd place on the tally sheet with 30. They are 4 behind leader Eric Wynalda. After not scoring in 18 monthes in USA matches, Dandy now has 5 goals in the past 3 games.
-But I have to say, as great as he was yesterday and against Mexico last month, where was Donovan last summer when we really needed him? Really. Where was he? He has done a bunch of interviews and said he played bad etc etc. Ok fine. But we all know that cuz we saw it. But "why?" is the question he has not answered.
-Bob Bradley has become the first USA coach to win his first 3 games.
-The USA starting back line of Cherundolo, Onyewu, Conrad and Bocanegra was the same starting four as the World Cup USA v Ghana game.
-Kyle Beckerman was added to the USA roster on Friday after he has returned from a trip to Argentina with Colorado. It does not appear as though anyone was dropped from the roster to add Beckerman either.
-On the same field just prior to the senior team game in Tampa, the USA U17's beat El Salvador 2-0. Goals scored by Greg Garza & Tommy Meyer. They will try to qualify for the youth World Championship tournament in 1 month in Jamaica.
-The official USA team blog. Sadly this thing hasn't been updated since late Saturday afternoon, when they could be using it to give us all kinds of cool little shit.
-There was a comment left at This Is American Soccer by a reader named Mike who said getting into the stadium yesterday was horrible. "...disaster that was Will Call yesterday I really enjoyed being in Tampa, 90 minutes in line to retrieve tickets, since walk up sales and will call were in the same line, got into the stadium at halftime." This is an insult to fans and shows one of many ways US Soccer only pays lip service to its paying customers.
-The Bradenton Herald with a nice story on USA U17 Residency School player Alexander Nimo.
-The Northern California newspaper North County Times with a story on hometown boy, USA & Hannover defender Steve Cherundolo.
-Four USA players were released back to their clubs following yesterday's game:
Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham
Brian Carroll - DC United
Tim Howard - Everton
Oguchi Onyewu - Newcastle
-The following players did not see the field - G: Brad Guzan, Kasey Keller, D: Wade Barrett, Jay DeMerit, Heath Pearce, Frank Simek, M: Kyle Beckerman, F: Kenny Cooper
-Greg Seltzer at Yanks Abroad makes a very vague reference to Heath Pearce not playing yesterday due to an injury. As far as I can find there is no other reference to this injury on the entire set of tubes knows as the internets.
-US Soccer as always has really good insider type video footage for us fans. Nothing post game yet, but still a lot to see.
-On Soccernet's USA page there are two good video clips, one an interview with Landon Donovan on the field post game byAllen Hopkins, and then a Sports Center highlights & analysis bit. (Sorry but they do not provide direct links. I send you to the page, and then you gotta find em yourself. Lame I know.)

During the USA v Ecuador game did you hear Eric Wynalda say MLS is going to make all teams cut their grass the same. (I guess this is to help with offsides or something.) I think that is a crock of shit, cuz I love interesting cuts in the grass. And I don't think referee's can even see the cut of the grass from field level. The other "news" Wynalda gave us was that MLS is going to unveil their own theme music. Thats fine. The World Cup has theirs. The Champions League has theirs. The EPL has theirs. It just better not be ultra-awful like that song US Soccer used to play when our boys scored a goal. That was moronic. NO LYRICS PLEASE!

The USA U20's are in Texas getting a little training in as they prepare for next summers World Cup. Gabe Ferrari of Sampdoria scored 2 in a 3-2 win over SMU. Freddy Adu got the game winner. Good to hear.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kansas City has shipped defender Shavar Thomas to Los Angeles for a draft pick next year.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

US Players Assoc has a Q & A with brand new Toronto striker Conor Casey. We have seen few words from Conor. (I think it's great that US Soccer has a one guy called Conor Casey and another called Kasey Keller.)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with a story on first year New England forward and preliminary MLS rookie of the year candidate (I just made that up) Adam Cristman,
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reader Tim, aka TNT, has written a guest column at Raging Bull Nation. This is his New York Red Bulls season preview.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Metrofanatic reports on the 5 draftees just signed by the New York Red Bulls.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

John Haydon of the Washington Times reports on DC United's training in central Mexico ahead of next weeks CCC match in Guadelajara.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Former Columbus Crew stand out Dante Washington has been hired by the team to provide analysis during some of the teams TV broadcasts. This is great. He has a real personality. I hope he becomes a soccer TV announcing star. We need more like him. And holy crap does that guy have a physique.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Luis Bueno of LA Soccer News explores the MLS v Europe debate for players.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Jeff Rusnack of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel gets to write something about soccer that us die-hards want to read. He usually gets stuck writing about Samuel Eto'o and Barcelona having a hissy fit, a week or two after it happens. Yesterday he talked to folks involved in south Florida soccer about MLS returning to the area.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bill Urban over at the US Players Assoc site wants MLS to expand the scope of the reserve teams. Here Here! Abso-frickin-lutely. Double the size next season and double their schedule too. Let's not take so many small steps when something works as well as the reserves already has. Small is good for testing the waters, but if it works then dive in and get swimming, cuz we've got about 100 years of catching up to do here.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Wall Street Journal reports positively on the eve of the 12th season in MLS.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Puerto Rico USL-MLS Challenge:
Thursday
Los Angeles 3-2 Rochester
Puerto Rico 1-0 Dallas
Sunday
Los Angeles 2-1 Puerto Rico
Dallas 2-0 Rochester
-LA Galaxy were handed the title - whatever that might mean.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carolina Challenge Cup
Saturday
Houston 2-0 Toronto
Charleston 0-1 New York
Wednesday
Toronto v New York
Houston v Charleston
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

There is more of that wild drooling over Brian McBride on the Fulham web site. It's a quality article of course, full praise and admiration. But what exactly is the point? Maybe Volzy was busy talking to someone else. Thanks to BQ for sending the link.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and next:
Thur Mar 22
-Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
-Costa Rica 4-0 New Zealand - Alvaro Saborio with 2 goals, Alonso Solis & Bryan Ruiz with the other 2 for CR.
-Panama 0-3 Haiti - goals by Eliphene Cadet, Fecien Brunel & Pierre-Roland Saint-Jean
-Guadeloupe 2-2 Trinidad & Tobago - both Guade goals by Xavier Bematol, T & T goals by Christian Baptiste & Andre Toussaint.
-Honduras 2-0 El Salvador - both Hondu goals by Carlos Olivia
Sun Mar 25
-Bermuda 0-3 Canada - goals by Attiba Huchinson, Tomasz Radzinski & Paul Stalteri.
-Mexico 2-1 Paraguay - both Mexi goals by Jared Borgetti, Para goal by Roque Santa Cruz
-Barbados 0-0 Guatemala
-USA 3-1 Ecuador - 3 USA goals by Donovan, Ecua goal by Felipe Caicedo.
Mon Mar 26
-Jamaica v Panama
Tue Mar 27
-El Salvador v Honduras
Wed Mar 28
-Chile v Costa Rica
-Mexico v Ecuador
-USA v Guatemala
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The Mexican league played a near full slate of games this weekend. Here is the Jornada 12 Roundup from LA Soccer News.
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Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 27
Colo Colo - Caracas
Gremio - Deportes Tolima
Mar 28
Bolivar - Cienciano
Defensor Sporting - Deportivo Pasto
Internacional - Velez Sarsfield
Mar 29
Audax Italiano - Alianza Lima
River Plate - LDU Quito
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
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Reading coach Steve Coppell has signed a two year contract extension for next season and the one after that.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times with a story called: Ronaldinho Becoming the Face of Soccer. Now correct me if I am wrong, but hasn't he been the face of soccer for about 4 years now. And in reality isn't he actually starting to slip off this perch, as guys like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi blossom. This seems to me like a story that should be in People Magazine, not the New York Times.
-Here is the full Q & A with the "beautiful bucktoothed Brazilian".
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune looks at the weird, wild and worrisome weekend of international matches. Are things really worse than ever? Or does this bad stuff just get all the press scrutiny these days. I think its the latter.
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I was very surprised to see South Korea beaten at home by Uruguay 0-2.
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South Africa won their first game under new coach Carlos Alberto Parreira. They beat Chad 0-3 in an African Nations Cup qualifier.
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FIFA made a profit of 156 million euros on the 2006 World Cup. And that is not counting all the private profits FIFA executives made with their under the table side deals. If Jack Warner made a cool million in black market ticket sales imagine what the real big boys like Blatter raked in.
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There have been stories speculating on a possible takeover of Arsenal by an outside investor. And it will come as no surprise to us American soccer fans to learn that that person in Stan Kroenke. The Colorado Rapids press department deny the validity of this story. Another version of the story says Roman Abramovich's newly divorced and now billionaire wife is going to buy Arsenal. How great would that be!?!
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Non-Futbol ending: Georgetown v Ohio State & Florida v UCLA - now that's a solid final four! I can't wait to see Greg Oden v Roy Hibbert not Hibbard [thanks for straightening me out on that one].

Golden Rules News

Beau Dure of USA Today wrote: "Du Nord .... as enlightening as the Renaissance". Bless your heart sir. I am humbled, and will use this compliment to boost my already ridiculously juvenile ego! Now go read his new blog.


US Soccer prepares for friendly's v Ecuador & Guatemala:
-Official interview with the awesome Kasey Keller! Listen via podcast.
-This picture proves Jay DeMerit is training! Fantastic news.
-The team blog.
-The Bradenton Herald with a story on Landon Donvan's star power.
-It looks like the St Petersburg Times does not care at all about Sundays USA v Ecuador game. They have no coverage whatsoever. Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame!
-Tim Howard from the team blog: "It's been a little odd after the World Cup because we had so many really experienced, well-respected players who have retired. Now it's a very new team. There's still some household names on the team, but back then they didn't have to lead. When I'm sitting in the background and I'm looking at Claudio or Brian or Eddie Pope, it's easy for me because they lead; I just jump on their coat tails. I just had to play my part on the team. But with those guys gone, the likes of myself and others have to take on that role. There's going to be times when these younger, inexperienced players are going to look up to somebody. They're not going to have to lead; they are just going to have to follow ... When we get to tournaments like the Gold Cup and Copa America, the true leaders are going to have to stand up and be accounted for."
-Kristian Dyer at Soccernet with a look at Bob Bradley's coaching style as compared to Il Bruce`.
-Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet previews USA v Ecuador.
-The word from Team USA is that the new shirt will be worn with similar color shorts and socks. We shall see.
-Looks like Nike has a new ball.
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Andrew Hush at Soccer New England talks to both Revs player Shalrie Joseph and coach Steve Nicol about how the "I want to be traded" situation will affect the team as long as Shalrie is still on the team. The both claim it will have no effect. As a student of human behavior, I declare that to be impossible.
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Hush also profiles Rev's rookie striker Adam Cristman. For some reason I have a hunch this kid might have the goods.
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Steven Goff at Soccer Insider talks to DC United goalkeeper coach Mark Simpson about starter Troy Perkins (how's he healing?) and developmental player Shawn Crowe. Then he talks to midfielder Ben Olsen about the arrival of Fred2.
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A reader named DJL made a great comment yesterday about Jon Busch. After Busch was cut from the Columbus Crew last month he made quite a spectacle in the press about how harsh his treatment was in by the club. Wednesday Busch was cut again, this time from Toronto FC, and the reader asked: "So did Busch complain about getting cut this time too?" Excellent point amigo. Thanks for asking.
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The San Jose Mercury News with an update on the re-animation of the San Jose Earthquakes and stadium building. It also says that the San Jose Sharks hockey ownership may become investors in the Nextquakes. Weren't they investors at one time before and bailed?
-The Merc News also has a short & more personal look at how potential owner Lew Wolff conducts himself. I really like the feeling I get from this guy.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times reports that the LA Galaxy have sold the front of their shirts to Herbalife (the pyramid supplement seller) for $3.5 - 5 million per season for 5 seasons. That is a big gap in dollar amounts (17.5 to 25).
-Business Wire has a more corporate take on the story, and without any $ speculation.
-If the money is really as much as $5 million per season for 5 seasons, then they will have paid most of Beckham's salary ($5.5 million per) right there. I know the insider story is that Beckham gets a nice cut of these new deals, but.... you know what I am getting at.
-Included with the announcement was a little photo of the new shirt worn by striker Alan Gordon. So I think we can safely say that rumors of him leaving the team are probably dead wrong. Here is the tiny picture (the best I could find).
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And here's the first look at the official Toronto FC shirt, and it's crowned by their new shirt sponsor as well. BMO, the bank who are got their name on the new TFC stadium bought the shirt rights too. No word at all on what they paid.
-Is this blue bear thing an official mascot for the team?
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Ben at Even Is On with the long Q & A with LA Galaxy goomba Alexi Lalas.
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Jane Havsy profiles New York youngster Jozy Altidore for USA Today.
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Houston has a Baptist church for a new corporate sponsor!
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Luis Bueno, writing for MLSnet, on Chivas USA newbie John Cunliffe. And he's English. How 'bout that. An Englishman on a Mexican team in an America league. Not as good as the long list of Andy Welsh's links, but good enough for second place this week.
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Bueno also talks to Sacha Kljestan from that same Chivas USA club.
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Dave Lifton at MLSnet writes about DCU veteran defender, and 2 time du Nord Best XI, Brian Namoff!
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Luis Arroyave at the Chicago Tribune writes about Fire second year defender Dasan Robinson.
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It's official - defender Hunter Freeman was shipped from Colorado to New York for a coupla draft picks and a case of the new Red-Hot Kit Kat's.
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CSTV with a story on the three former Indiana Hoosiers on the Columbus Crew roster: Danny O'Rourke, Jed Zayner & Ned Grabavoy.
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Glenn Davis has a short Q & A with Kansas City midfielder Davy Arnaud, on his Soccer Hour blog.
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Carl Robinson has been a hot PR commodity in Britain this week. The Welshman from Toronto FC is in Wales for Euro 08 qualifying and does yet another interview about his new team. This time with The Guardian. This article calls him a pioneer, but haven't their been other Welshians in MLS before Robinson?
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The London Daily Star says Manchester City midfielder Trevor Sinclair will be playing in MLS if Man City does not give him a new deal. Does he know how little he will be paid in MLS? I suspect not.
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Hey, let me throw out a name of an aging, yet high quality team player, who MLS teams need to sign. He will be out of a contract at the end of this EPL season - Norberto Solano, the Peruvian from Newcastle.
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Results from yesterdays first of two rounds at the Puerto Rico USL-MLS Challenge:
Los Angeles 3-2 Rochester
Puerto Rico 1-0 Dallas
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Fulham have announced USA Day! Monday April 9th v Manchester City.
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The Times of London says Newcastle is going to clean house this summer and big American defender Oguchi Onyewu is NOT in their future plans.
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CONCACAF friendly matches and scores this week and next:
Thur Mar 22
Jamaica 0-2 Switzerland - Marco Streller & Goekhan Inler with the Swiss goals.
Sat Mar 24
Costa Rica v New Zealand
Panama v Haiti
Guadeloupe v Trinidad & Tobago
Honduras v El Salvador
Sun Mar 25
Bermuda v Canada
Mexico v Paraguay
Barbados v Guatemala
USA v Ecuador
Mon Mar 26
Jamaica v Panama
Tue Mar 27
El Salvador v Honduras
Wed Mar 28
Chile v Costa Rica
Mexico v Ecuador
USA v Guatemala
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Joel Aceves of LA Soccer News previews the two upcoming Mexico friendly's.
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Copa Libertadores - here are the week's matches:
Mar 20
Cerro Porteno 2-1 Cucuta Deportivo
Real Potosi 2-2 Maracaibo
Caracas 0-4 Colo Colo
Mar 21
Flamengo 1-0 Parana
Banfield 3-1 America
Necaxa 1-1 Sao Paulo
Mar 22
Libertad 1-1 El Nacional
Boca Juniors 3-0 Toluca
Gimnasia 1-2 Santos
Emelec 1-0 Nacional
-Match reports via Sports Illustrated.
-With 2 rounds of the group stage still to be played, both Santos & Flamengo have already qualified for the knock out stages.
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates was in Mexico this week pimping his new operating software Vista, and as part of the marketing rollout he challenged Mexico captain Rafa Marquez to a little video soccer. Of course Rafa won. He did so with a swift kick to the hip, a punch to the neck, and a crisp head butt to the skull. Gates went down. Marquez feigned innocence. But unlike Cobi Jones, Gates did not get back up.
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I missed this one earlier in the week. Moritz Volz, defender from Fulham (and the Jimmy Conrad of the EPL), has his latest column up at the Times of London: Don't change things just for change's sake. (thanks to BQ for finding this one for us)
-Everyone in England is going Volyz-wild. The Guardian with a Q & A.
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The prolific Andrea Canales has a new "serious" soccer news blog via Top Drawer Soccer, called National Scenes.
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And here are three more new fan blogs to be added to the list of fellow freaks:
-Vasco USA
-Nine Guys Short
-An American Red
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You gotta admit that the new Wembley stadium is quite an impressive structure.
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Reuters with a story on the next batch of talented Africans.
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Do you know about the French superstar from Marseille with Algerian heritage? Zidane? No, sir. Try Samir Nasri. The Guardian raves.