Hola Gringo News

The first match of the African Cup of Nations Group Stage will be Sunday January 20 and feature hosts Ghana v Guinea.


SF at the great Offside Rules has a clip from a new DVD called History of MLS Cup. No release date yet. Looks quite good. Giddy up.
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Andrea Canales at Soccer365 with an article on the return to LA of Clint Mathis. I missed this one last week.
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At the same time, Greg Seltzer at American Soccer Daily says LA midfielder Clint Mathis is being chased by 2 Australian teams. Cleetus would be a fool not to go and live in yet another country while he can still play.
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Ives Galarcep of Soccer By Ives with an article on MLS youth development - DC United, New York Red Bulls & Chivas USA are all set to sign their first developmental players to senior contracts. Fantastic news!
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Due to a string of concussions DC United midfielder Josh Gros has decided not to play this season. He has not announced his retirement, just a year off at this point. Damn.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on his Red Card blog with three bits of info on the Chicago Fire coaching search. One - Two - Three.
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And just like magic, ta da, the 3rd Episode (download or listen now) of The American Soccer Show is online now, just one day after I linked to ep 2.
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One day after I find out he moved his blog (see link in right hand column), Dan Loney drops in at the US Soccer Players Assoc with an article on his top soccer story in America for 07.
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MLS Seattle does a Q & A with their teams biggest stake holder Joe Roth.
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Glenn Davis of the Houston Chronicle writes about attracting more top American athletes to the beautiful game.
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New York has cut loose midfielder Santino Quaranta from his contract with the team. At one time this kid was a huge bright prospect. And now he is....
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Down in Dallas the team is searching for a Technical Director. Their General Manager Michael Hitchcock is being moved to a roll more suited to his sales and operations skills.
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Emlyn Lewis at Soccer New England ponders the financial aspect of the departure of Rev's midfielder Andy Dorman.
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Big Apple Soccer is reporting that former Metrostars coach Octavio Zambrano has been hired by Tatabanya in Hungary.
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Paul Gardener writing for World Soccer (article via Sports Illustrated) says that David Beckham in MLS is both triumph & disaster. Yes indeed. Most writers focus on the disaster part, but financially the success is unprecedented by a long long way.
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Richard Snowden at Soccer365 compares his own life to that of Becks. Hilarity or stupidity? You decide.
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DC United president Kevin Payne has undergone quadruple bi-pass surgery. I had always heard he was a smoker. We wish him well.
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A San Jose Mercury News blog has a Q & A with Terry Fisher who was coach of the San Jose Earthquakes in the late 70's. He talks about the game then and now. Interesting.
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Amos Magee, coach of my beloved Minnesota Thunder, was once again on the coaching staff for the USA team taking part in the Maccabia games. This time around Magee was the at the helm and will be bringing home the GOLD from Argentina. Yes yes, our USA team won the whole thing!!!! And a big Thunder fan favorite, Kevin Friedland, scored the winning goal! Friedland was also the teams captain. Here is a press release from the Thunder.
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A small town paper, The Natchez Democrat, with an article on a young powerhouse high school goal scorer from Mississippi wants to make it big.
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A great article is on line at This Is American Soccer - a personal account written by a young soccer player from Queens New York who this fall went upstate to tiny Hartwick College to study and continue playing. Its a good one.
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Interliga
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jan 2
Monterrey 0-1 UNAM Pumas - goal by Pablo Bonells
Cruz Azul 0-1 San Luis - goal by Alfredo Moreno(PK)
-Thu Jan 3
Toluca v Atlas
Morelia v America
-Sat Jan 5
Cruz Azul v Monterrey
San Luis v UNAM Pumas
-Sun Jan 6
America v Toluca
Atlas v Morelia
-Tue Jan 8
Monterrey v San Luis
UNAM Pumas v Cruz Azul
-Wed Jan 9
Toluca v Morelia
Atlas v America
-Sat Jan 12
Semifinals
-All matches are played here in the USA, cuz they make loads of money!
-The top two teams will get spots in la Copa Libertadores.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram with a match report from last nights matches.
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Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News reports on last night as well.
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Aparicio also has an article on Sonny Guadarrama from Austin Texas who plays for Mexican club Morelia.
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Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise with his Interliga preview. Sorry this should have been on here yesterday.
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American goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann has signed an extension to his contract at Reading, through to the end of next season.
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Many of the US Soccer national teams (men, women & youth alike) are getting together for training/games in January. Here is the low down.
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American Soccer Daily talks to Aarhus forward Jeremiah White about his first ever call up to the USA national team camp.
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Hertha Berlin has two young Americans on trial right now - Bryan Arguez and Ellis McLaughlin.
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Americans In Europe - How'd they do? All midweek matches in England actually:
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - came off the bench in the 85th minute but lost 1-0 at Bolton. He also got himself a Yellow Card in the 90th minute.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played the whole match as usual and saved a PK top beat Sunderland 1-0 at home.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - started and went the distance in a 1-0 losing effort at Bolton.
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The English Premiership is the only top Euro league in action right now - so here are the top 5 teams:
50 Arsenal
48 Manchester United
44 Chelsea
39 Manchester City
38 Liverpool
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But Spain's La Liga gets back on board this weekend, and one game for sure could be a doozy - Espanyol v Villarreal.
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Last night in Spain's league cup - Copa Del Rey - the following teams advanced to the 5th round: Getafe, Sevilla, Barcelona, Racing Santander, Real Madrid, Real Betis, Villareal, Mallorca, Valldolid, Athletic Bilbao, Recreativo Huelva, Valencia, Atletico Madrid & Espanyol.
-The winners of tonight’s matches will also advance - Almeria v Levante (1-2 first leg) & Real Zaragoza v Pontevedra (0-1 first leg).
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Top Goal Scorers in Europe’s big leagues:
-La Liga
10 Luis Fabiano - Sevilla
9 Diego Milito - Zaragoza
8 Raul Tamudo - Espanyol
8 Daniel Guiza - Mallorca
8 Kahveci Nihat - Villarreal
8 Frederic Kanoute - Sevilla
8 Ruud van Nistelrooy - Real Madrid
8 Raul - Real Madrid
8 Leo Messi - Barcelona
-Bundesliga
10 Rafael Van der Vaart - Hamburg
9 Diego - Werder Bremen
9 Miroslav Klose - Bayern Munich
9 Luca Toni - Bayern Munich
8 Theofanis Gekas - Bayer Leverkusen
8 Mike Hanke - Hannover
8 Stanislav Sestak - Bochum
8 Mladen Petric - Borussia Dortmund
-Serie A
10 David Trezeguet - Juventus
7 Kaka - Milan
7 Francesco Totti - Roma
7 Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Inter Milan
6 Marco Borriello - Genoa
6 Cristiano Doni - Atalanta
6 Adrian Mutu - Fiorentina
-Eredivisie
16 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar - Ajax
13 Blaise N'Kufo - Twente
11 Danny Koevermans - PSV
11 Roy Makaay - Feyenoord
11 Afonso Alves - Heerenveen
10 Luis Suarez - Ajax
10 Robin Nelisse - Utrecht
-Premiership
13 Cristiano Ronaldo - Manchester United
12 Emmanuel Adebayor - Arsenal
10 Fernando Torres - Liverpool
10 Roque Santa Cruz - Blackburn
10 Robbie Keane - Tottenham
10 Nicolas Anelka - Bolton
9 Benjani Mwaruwari - Portsmouth
9 Ayegbeni Yakubu - Everton
-Ligue Un
12 Karim Benzema - Lyon
10 Mamadou Niang - Marseille
10 Johan Elmander - Toulouse
10 Tulio De Melo - Le Mans
10 David Bellion - Bordeaux
8 Rafik Saifi - Lorient
8 Bakari Kone - Nice
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Gregory Sica at Sports Illustrated looks at the first half season at Manchester United for Carlos Tevez.
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Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times Goal blog writes about players leaving big European clubs for the African Nations Cup.
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Moritz Volz, defender for Fulham, writing again for the Times of London, about his return from injury, and his nearly immediate 2 Yellow Cards and a suspension (his first ever). Good show old chap. He also gives us his Yeah's & Nay's of 07.
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Oliver Holt of the Mirror tells us that Joey Barton, famous for his outbursts of violence as much as his football in England, deserves our sympathy not derision.
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England's the Telegraph gives us 5 young players in Europe to watch for in 2008. Ok, I will keep an eye on em.
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The Guardian asks the big yet simple question - will the Liverpeople ever win the league title again?
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Paul Gardner of the New York Sun says that for 2008 we should all shut our traps.
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The mighty Rich Allen from the Fulham fans news site Craven Cottage Newsround writes a fine piece about being a Fulham supporter for the Times of London football blog. All hail Fulham. (thanks to you know who for this one)
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Finally today, The Observer in England picks up on the story of Oakland A's (baseball) GM Billy Beane who is known as a guy who can do miracles with little money, and has added soccer to his interests in life. He has a stake in the newly rebirthed San Jose Earthquakes too. (Thanks very much to BQ for this one)