A Visit To My Crentist News

I want to thank all of you for reading du Nord during 2007. I got done tallying some numbers last night and noticed that we fell just short of half a million readers, ending the year at 489,164. I had no idea this was possible. Thank you very very much.

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Ives Galarcep has left his newspaper job at the North Jersey Herald News and will got full time with Soccer By Ives, and his freelance writing jobs for people like Soccernet. Huge news, and congrats my man.

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Don't forget - the African Nations Cup begins on January 20th!

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The readers of The Toronto Star have picked Toronto FC as the biggest sports story of the year in their city. But I have to suspect that much like all voting in MLS related matters, a well orchestrated behind the scenes campaign by TFC loyalists made this one #1, not reality. Too bad it's not a real win.


Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe writes about midfielder Andy Dorman's departure from the New England Rev's.
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The Cape Cod Times with an article on the high quality first season of the Rev's midfielder Wells Thompson. And it was Thompson's emergence that sped up the departure of Dorman.
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Jimmy at the Blue Blooded Journo gives us a little background on his own New England Revolution fandom, and then does a Q & A with Rev's supporters group, The Midnight Riders, leader Monty Rodrigues. (this is from a few weeks ago, but not time relevant, while being very fan relevant)
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The Eddie Johnson to Derby County rumors are aflame again.
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Ives Galarcep is reporting that Chicago has talked to old Dallas coach Mike Jeffries. That, to me, wreaks of desperation.
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The Salt Lake Tribune has a new columnist in former Real Salt Lake GM Steve Pastorino. Great idea! We need more like this in newspaper all across the country.
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The Seattle Times lets a local soccer leader write an editorial about the future of the beautiful game in their city.
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The Glasgow Sunday Herald with a nice article on Toronto coach Mo Johnston.
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Andrea Canales at Soccernet examines the overall Cuauhtemoc Blanco effect on MLS.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet gives us the top 10 stories of 07.
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New York Forward Jozy Altidore on the New York Times Goal blog with his thoughts on the New Year.
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Jack Bell at the New York Times looks at 2007, domestically & internationally, starting with David Beckham, natch.
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Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune with his 2007 Soccer Awards (very locally focused, so you might learn something).
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports with his list of people to keep your eye on this next year. There are a couple of real surprises on this list.
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Michael Lewis at the New York Daily News counters with his top 10 people in American soccer to watch this year.
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Lewis, writing for Big Apple Soccer, hands out his annual Mikey awards. It's not always the most prestigious achievements that receive this fine honor.
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Nick Green of the Daily Breeze with his 07 re-cap for Southern California.
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Andrew Dixon at Black Athlete gives us his A-Z for 2007.
-In related news, Dixon will soon be hosting "Back of the Net", a two hour weekly radio show on the BASN Radio Network.
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Nick Webster of Fox Soccer Channel with his Best & Worst of 07.
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John Connolly of the Boston Herald with his top 5 of 07 for New England.
-And a recap of the teams season.
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Listen in to Episode 2 of the American Soccer Show (formerly known as the US Soccer Show) with my pals Kartik Krishnaiyer & Dave Denholm. Keep up the great work fella's.
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Did you know?: Shaka Hislop's real first name is Neil!
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USA U23 Olympic Qualifying
-Group A games at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa FL.
Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 11
USA v Cuba
-Thu Mar 13
USA v Panama
-Sat Mar 15
USA v Honduras
-The top 2 teams from this group will meet he top 2 from Group B: Mexico, Canada, Guatemala & Haiti.
-Semifinals in Nashville TN on Thu Mar 20, with the winners going to the Olympics.
-The inconsequential final will be played on Sun Mar 23, also in Nashville.
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The Mexican Interliga tournament kicks off today in Dallas:
-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.
Interliga
Matches & Scores:
-Wed Jan 2
Monterrey v UNAM Pumas
Cruz Azul v San Luis
-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
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Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times says some players and coaches are not cool with Interliga and want it ended. The coach of Pumas even left his first team at home.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram previews the matches being played at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco.
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Americans In Europe - How'd they do? All midweek matches in England actually:
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - played the full match but lost 1-2 to Chelsea.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - started, but subbed out after just 7 minutes when the team lost a defender to a Red Card. He was the victim of tactics. They lost 0-2 at home to Portsmouth.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and went all 90 minutes, but was called for PK which was converted for the game winner.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - played the whole match and won 0-3 at Southampton.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - has a game at Bolton today.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - faces Sunderland at home today.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - played all 90, saved a PK in the 3rd minute, but later coughed up rebound for a goal, and ended up losing 0-2 at home to Portsmouth.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance as usual and won 0-2 at Middlesbrough.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - at Bolton today.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - again starting and playing the whole match, apparently in midfield this game, in a losing effort. 2-0 away to Arsenal.
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Tim Howard now has 6 clean sheets since the 1st of December. Remarkable.
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Ravi Ubha at Soccernet talks to USA & West Ham defender Jonathan Spector about his clubs recent win, again, over Manchester United.
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Pat Walsh at Goal.com with a list of 11 American players who have something to prove in 08.
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Derby County has signed forward Emanuel Villa from Mexican team UAdG Tecos. He is from Argentina.
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UEFA.com with an article on Romania's amazing player Gheorghe Hagi. (thanks to BQ for this one.)
-For next summers European Championships, each country has nominated its own "Golden Player" (ie - Hagi, above).
Here are others (read this great stuff and learn some history!):
-Spain's Alfredo Di Stefano
-Turkey's Hakan Suker
-Sweden's Henrik Larsson
Czech's Josef Masopust
France's Just Fontaine
Greece's Vassilis Hatzipanagis
Germany's Fritz Walter
Italy's Dino Zoff
Holland's Johan Cruyuff
Poland's Wlodzimierz Lubanksi
Portugal's Eusebio
Russia's Lev Yashin
Croatia's Davor Suker
Austria's Herbert Prohaska
-With many more yet to come.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with Spain & Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos.
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Iran has hired Artur Jorge of Portugal as their new national team coach.
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Romania has awarded Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu as the countries Player Of The Year.
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In an award similar to France Football's Balon d'Or, El Pais of Uruguay annually awards the Best Player In The Americas. This year they have given it to Paraguay & Club America forward Salvador Cabanas. Felicitaciones amigo.
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English goal keeper Robert Green of West Ham writes for the Independent of England about the pressure of the schedule crunch this time of year for English teams.
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Alan Smith at the Telegraph in England says Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack is back from injury and showing that he still has what it takes to be great. I personally like Ballack a lot, and am glad to see him on the field again.
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The Guardian with a whole slew of good articles over the last couple of days:
-Sean Ingle on the dullness of the crowd that has come back to Man United's Old Trafford Stadium. (Well, when seats cost a fortune, you get just rich people, not just fans.)
-Five things learned from the games played during the "festive football period".
-Jonathan Wilson with a story on a Russian football academy that could be a real source of talent.
-A player & a former player turned TV commentator debate the timing of the African Nations Cup - Ibrahima Sonko of Reading & Senegal and BBC TV's Mark Bright with arguments.
-Barry Glendenning writes about the world of internet/blog football commentators.
-Kevin McCarra says the massive about of foreign money in the Premiership will come back to haunt the league at some point.
-David James, the Portsmouth keeper, and regular writer, differentiates between statistics and instinct when judging the real quality of a player.
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Some very sad news from Scotland this week as Motherwell player Phil O'Donnell collapsed on the field during a match v Dundee and died of heart failure. He was 35. Here is a message from the club. The teams official site has many more stories on O'Donnell.
-Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune even covers the story from the angle that the Old Firm derby was called off due to O'Donnell's death.
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Jen Chang at Soccernet lists his personal all time favorite players. A very interesting read. I learned some things. Nice.
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The Herald, of Zimbabwe, has an article on small regional airlines in southern Africa who are setting up to do business during the World Cup.
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Soccernet has a Q & A with Ghana's Michael Essien about the upcoming African Nations Cup tournament, being held on his native soil.
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Let's end the day with New Years remarks from FIFA President Sepp Blatter. It all sounds well, and good, so how come us fans don't trust this guy for one second?