Actually Quite Grabby News

Not the most news today, because I am traveling. Sorry. Hopefully a lot more great stuff tomorrow.


Michael Bradley scored 2 more goals for his club Heerenveen and led them up to 3rd place in Holland! He now has 15 goals in all competitions this season! Amazing!
-US Soccer posted an audio interview with Bradley just before his latest heroics. Download or listen.
-You can add Blackburn, Sunderland, Newcastle & Everton in England to Hamburg in Germany of teams now chasing after Bradley. Every indication though is that he will not be transferred until next summer.


MLS News

The Offside Rules with a great, nearly non-soccer Q & A with Chivas USA forward Alecko Eskandarian.
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The Bermuda Sun has a Q & A with New England midfielder Khano Smith, their native son.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com catches us up on any stray MLS news and answers viewer mail.
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Ives Galarcep writing for Soccernet looks at which players the MLS teams are dreaming of signing during this transfer window.
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Jeff Rusnack at the South Florida Sun Sentinel looks at the players who have left and arrived in MLS so far this off season.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle on the relatively cheap tickets to be had for Dynamo games again this season. Houston sports fans of all teams are well known for taking advantage of great deals.
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Tom Dunmore at the Chicago Sports Weekly with an article on MLS teams selling the front of their shirts to sponsors.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer says financial help to build a stadium for a potential MLS in Philly is still up in the air.
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Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald with the latest news on Florida International University's plan to build a new stadium and lure an MLS team to make their home in it.
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MLS Rumor City

Will Aston Villa make a last minute bid to try and steal Brad Guzan from Celtic? This can only be seen as great news for The Worm, cuz he price just went up.
-And now Soccer By Ives reports that Villa has doubled Celtics bid!
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After a third big offer was turned down, Preston in England have said that they are done chasing after New England forward Taylor Twellman. Their last bid was $3million.
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Norwich forward Darren Huckerby is no longer connected to the LA Galaxy. Now it's both Toronto & DC chasing him.
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PSG attacking midfielder Marcelo Gallardo is in Washington DC and at the opening of DC United preseason camp today. I guess that means we can expect a deal to be announced very soon.
-Steven Goff of the Washington Post with the latest details.
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Goff reports that Colorado is seriously trying to acquire Christian Gomez from DC. I really hope this happens, for the sake of MLS fans everywhere.
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Team USA

Training in Carson CA for a Feb 6 match in Houston v Mexico.
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Official team blog.
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Kyle Beckerman has injured his ankle and left the training camp to go back to his club in Utah.
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The squad got brand new gear from Nike. Its a whole new look. You can see it in the following pictures and videos.
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US Soccer gives us new photos and video from the January Training camp.
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USA U23

Aka the USA Olympic Team. Training in Bradenton FL for Olympic qualifying in March.
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Official Olympic team blog.
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Jeff Carlisle at Soccernet gives us an update as the team continues to prepare for Olympic qualifying.
-One really good piece of info in this article is that it looks like Michael Orozco who plays for San Luis in Mexico is going to suit up for the Americans. He is from Orange County CA.
-What worries me though, is that they don't appear to have any pre-qualifying matches on the schedule yet. Will there be any, or are they going in cold.
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The Tampa Tribune with a story on the culture of the players on the U23 team as they prepara for qualifying. They play their group stage matches in Tampa.
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USA U20

Playing in Copa Chivas in Guadalajara Mexico
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Matches & Scores:
-Sat Jan 26
USA 2-2 Club America
-Sun Jan 27
USA 1-1 UAG Tecos
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Goalkeeper Abdul Hamid suffered a separated shoulder in Sunday's match and will be replaced by Zac MacMath.
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Forward Ellis McLoughlin was replaced on the roster by Hasani Sinclair. No reason was given for the switch.
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Sheanon Williams was Red Carded for two Yellow Cards early in the second half of the Tecos match. They were earned only minutes apart.
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CONCACAF

Details on the CONCACAF Champions League have finally been announced. It will begin in August of this year.
-One big question was answered in that this spring will be the last time we see the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
-24 teams will be part of this tournament.
-I don't know when they will announce who the specific teams are that will participate.
-Mexico and the USA will each get 4 spots. The Caribbean Islands get 3. 2 each from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. And 1 each from Canada, Belize and Nicaragua.
-So how will Canada determine their entrant? Will Toronto of MLS have to face off against Vancouver & Montreal of the USL First Division to decide the team?
-And how the hell does Belize get a team on their own? I didn't even know they had a league. Wouldn't the Jamaican League have little more clout that Belize?
-Here's the press release.
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Copa Libertadores

The final qualifying round begins this week.
1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Jan 29
Arsenal v Mineros
-Wed Jan 30
Cruzeiro v Cerro Porteno
Atlas v La Paz
-Thu Jan 31
Olmedo v Lanus
Ciencciano v Montevideo Wanderers
-Thu Feb 7
Chico v Audax Italiano

2nd leg Matches & Scores
-Tue Feb 5
Mineros v Arsenal
Lanus v Olmedo
-Wed Feb 6
La Paz v Atlas
Cerro Porteno v Cruzeiro
-Thu Feb 7
Montevideo Wanderers v Cienciano
-Tue Feb 12
Audax Italiano v Chico
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Big Euro Matches This Weekend
-Sun Jan 27
Sporting 2-0 Porto - a big big upset in the biggest Portuguese rivalry.
Real Madrid 3-2 Villarreal - #1 v #3 - Villa are shown to be pretenders, and Real extend their lead to 9 points.
Feyenoord 1-1 Groningen - now winner as #3 & #4 battle in Holland, are now tied at 40 points, 6 behind the leader PSV, and dropped into #4 & #5 spots by the end of the weekend.
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English FA Cup

4th round Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jan 25
Southend 0-1 Barnsley
-Sat Jan 26
Mansfield 0-2 Middlesbrough
Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle
Barnet 0-1 Bristol Rovers
Coventry 2-1 Millwall
Derby 1-4 Preston
Liverpool 5-2 Havant & Waterlooville
Oldham 0-1 Huddersfield
Peterborough 0-3 West Bromich
Portsmouth 2-1 Plymouth
Southampton 2-0 Bury
Watford 1-4 Wolverhampton
Wigan 1-2 Chelsea
-Sun Jan 27
Hereford 1-2 Cardiff
Manchester United 3-1 Tottenham
Sheffield United 2-1 Manchester City
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There were only 4 Americans left in the running for the FA Cup before the weekend began, and when the dust settled they were ALL eliminated. Damn.
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See the match ups for the 5th Round of the FA Cup here.
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Americans In Europe

How'd they do in their matches this weekend?
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 76th minute of a road win 1-3 over Guimaraes.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - team off this weekend. Play a league match on Tuesday at Bolton.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the full 90 scoring 2 more goals and leading his team to a 0-3 road win over De Graafschap, and into 3rd place in the Eredivisie!
-Bobby Convey - Reading - team off this weekend. Play a league match on Wednesday at Chelsea.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - team off this weekend. Play a league match on Tuesday at Bolton.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - played all 90 minutes in a 1-4 home FA Cup loss to Wolverhampton.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for his teams 1-4 loss to Preston. Play at Man City on Wednesday.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played all 90 and drew 1-1 at Aston Villa in the only league game played over the weekend.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - team off this weekend. Play a league match on Wednesday at Chelsea.
-Tim Howard - Everton - team off this weekend, play Tottenham at home on Wednesday in the league.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - not known if he will be ready to play for his new team with the go to Bolton on Tuesday.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started but lasted only 24 minutes in a miserable 1-4 home FA Cup loss to Preston. He injured his knee, but the extent of the damage is not known. Play at Man City on Wednesday.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - still not suiting up for his new team, but they got another point in a 1-1 home draw v Crete. Unfortunately they still sit dead last.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard Liege - played all 90 minutes of a 0-1 road win over Brussels.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - team off this weekend. Host Liverpool in a league match on Wednesday.
-Danny Szetela - Racing Santander - sat on the bench again for his teams 2-2 home draw with Zaragoza.
-Zak Whitbread - Millwall - still injured and did not dress for his teams 2-1 FA Cup loss at Coventry.
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European News

An American company called General Sports and Entertainment has bought English club Derby County. GS & E are based in Suburban Detroit. Here is their website.
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Oh no! Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times Goal blog says giant blowhard Hank Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees could be tempted to buy a big European team, possibly Tottenham!
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Tottenham has bought defender Jonathan Woodgate from Middlesbrough.
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Sid Lowe of the Guardian with an article on a little known player who has the skill to revive the fortunes of Deportivo La Coruna in Spain.
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The Guardian also has a story on Inter Milan who are pissed off at the way they are treated in the Italian press, so they have gone silent.
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As much as I hate to admit it, that kid Pato at Milan is doing some serious damage to opponents. Good for him.
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The Times Of London looks at the continued troubles with corruption in Polish football.
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African Nations Cup

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Fri Jan 25
Cote D’Ivoire 4-1 Benin
Nigeria 0-0 Mali
-Sat Jan 26
Cameroon 5-1 Zambia
Egypt 3-0 Sudan
-Sun Jan 27
Senegal 1-3 Angola
Tunisia 3-1 South Africa
-Mon Jan 28
Ghana 2-0 Morocco - goals by Michael Essien & Sulley Muntari.
Guinea 1-1 Namibia Guin goal by Souleymane Youla. Nam goal by Brian Brendell.
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Ivory Coast were the first team to advance to the knock out rounds. Today they are joined by Ghana and Guinea.
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Even though they have not been eliminated from the tournament, and still have one game left to play in the group stage, the coach of Senegal, Henryk Kasperczak, has resigned.
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Brian Oliver of the Guardian gives us 3 new articles from the ACN:
-A look at the life of Ghana forward Junior Agogo. He is a troubled soul in many ways.
-Ghana is using this tournament to try and help the world know about this countries history and future.
-He gets away from the tournament and gives us some insight into regular life in Ghana.
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Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian with an article on a very talented Nigerian who is NOT at the ACN this time around.
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Greg Lalas on the New York Times Goal blog shows us some of the "Cult of Michael Essien".
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Jack Bell also at the Goal blog writes about the Angolan flag.
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Sid Lowe for World Soccer has a Q & A with Mali captain Mahamadou Diarra. Via Sports Illustrated.
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Greg Lalas also writing for Sports Illustrated says look out for Mali.