Depantsed By Vikings News

Egypt won their 6th African Cup of Nations on Sunday, beating Cameroon 1-0 on a goal by Mohamed Aboutreika in the 77th minute.

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Ives Galarcep is reporting what I kinda predicted last week - the USA will play in England on May 28. In reality I predicted the USA would play England on June 8 in the USA, cuz that's when all the other big Euro teams will be playing for the European Championship. The Wednesday May 28th date was supposedly Norway (who announced the game themselves). I also had Argentina as a possibility for June 8, so that makes even more sense, and a combo of game against England-Spain-Argentina would be amazing.

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Did you buy anything from MLSgear in the first half of last year? If you did, then someone may have stolen your Name, Address & CC number. Not cool.


MLS News

Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch says its time for the Hunt family to give up the ship and sell the Crew to local owners. Here, here.
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Shawn Mitchell also of the Dispatch says the Crew have two Euro players in on a trial basis.
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The Kansas City Wizards website has a Q & A with their head coach Curt Onalfo.
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The Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post both with a stories on Colorado nabbing Christian Gomez from DC.
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Ives Galarcep writing for Soccernet thinks DC might have gotten the better of the Christian Gomez to Colorado deal.
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The Ottawa Citizen with an article that just comes right out and says that Toronto had lousy players last year. Ouch, but very true. I'm looking at you Carl Robinson. I didn't expect much out of many of those potato heads, but you were supposed to be half decent.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail says the new TFC coach John Carver is ready to get down to the nitty gritty.
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Former RSL GM Steve Pastorino writing for the Salt Lake Tribune says preseason chemistry can go a long way all season.
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Jim Dow of Rev's net with Part 2 of his pre-preseason diatribe on New England.
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Mike Biglin of the MetroWest Daily News says Rev's keeper Matt Reis is ready to move on from 2007 and tackle 2008.
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Adam Smartschan of the Cape Cod Times with an article on New England's probable new starting forward Adam Cristman.
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Smartschan also writes about the Rev's long time defender Jay Heaps. Was it me or was Heaps pretty awful last year?
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3rd Degree covered the Dallas match v Centro America on Saturday, and afterward got some questions in to Wycombe defender Sam Stockley who is Dallas on a trial run. Good stuff. Plus we get some updates on other FCD youngsters and trialists. (thanks to Luke for sending this our way)
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John Haydon of the Washington Times on the wide open door of American players leaving the country to play in Europe.
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Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com rounds up the past 7 days of MLS news.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 8
Ventura County Fusion 0-7 Salt Lake - at Buena High in Ventura
Chicago 3-1 USA U17 - in Bradenton FL
-Sat Feb 9
Kansas City 0-4 Columbus - in Bradenton FL
Dallas 8-1 Centro America at Pizza Hut Park
Chicago 2-1 U South Florida - in Bradenton FL
-Mon Feb 11
Toronto 0-0 Odense Boldklub - in Bradenton FL
-Tue Feb 12
Kansas City v DC - in Bradenton FL
Chivas USA v New York - at HDC
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Australian team Sydney FC will play in the Pan Pacific tournament later this month, and Australian Four Four Two warns us that the team are no "cupcakes". Did I miss something? Did someone say they were? I didn't think so. But now that you have brought it up, they better prove it on the field.
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MLS Rumor City

American defender Nat Borchers has spent the last 2 years in Norway at Odd Grenland. And people have been whispering for months about a return to MLS. The latest destination is Salt Lake.
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Seattle is gonna install new turf at Qwest Field before their new MLS team starts play, but don't get excited, it will NOT be grass.
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USL First Division & PDL

The Vancouver Whitecaps did such a great job promoting their match last fall with the LA Galaxy, that they are going to do it again, this time over in Edmonton. The date for the match is not set, but the preliminary choice is last April/early May.
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The Charleston Post and Courier tells us that the Charleston Battery's home, Blackbaud Stadium, will now be run on solar power.
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The USL website has the story on how the First Division Puerto Rico Islanders and coach Colin Clarke are using their success to revive the island's national team fortunes.
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Team USA

Jozy Altidore writing for the New York Times Goal blog tells us about his experience playing 90 minutes versus Mexico.
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US Soccer with a couple more videos from last week that I have not linked to yet - 24 Hours of Clint Dempsey and Behind the Scenes: MNT 2, MEX 2.
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Blades of Blue with some nice photos from last weeks USA v Mexico game. (thanks a ton to Will for sharing these with us all)
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USA Olympic Team

Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer talks to coach Petr Nowak about the progress of his team.
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Americans In Europe

How'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - had a Taca de Portugal match, and won 4-1 at home over Pacos de Ferreira. They advance to the Quarterfinals now. Adu was on the bench but did not play.
-Bryan Arguez - Hertha Berlin - did not dress for his teams 1-3 win at Stuttgart.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - went all 90 as usual and won 1-2 on the road at Kaiserslautern.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - watched from the bench as the team lost 1-0 on the road at Middlesbrough.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the full 90, SCORED AGAIN, and pulled off a 1-1 tie at league leaders PSV! They are still 9 points behind in 2nd, but are tied on points with Ajax, Feyenoord & Breda.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - played all 90 in a 2-2 home tie with Karlsruhe.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not dress for a 1-0 loss at Everton.
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - came on at half time of a 1-0 road loss at Middlesbrough.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - still out injured but the team got 3 points on the road winning 1-2 at Ipswich.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - was not on the bench for the 0-3 home loss to Tottenham.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - plays at Arsenal on Monday.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - played the entire game losing 1-0 at Everton.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played the whole 90 minutes of a 1-0 home win over Reading.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - did not dress for the 1-0 road loss at Middlesbrough.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - dressed but did not play in a 1-0 road loss at Middlesbrough.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - was not on the bench for the 0-3 home loss to Tottenham.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - comes on in the 76th minute, and miraculously scores for his team in the 90th minute to get a point at home, tying 2-2 with Apollon Kalamarias.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - came on in the 64th minute of a 1-0 road loss at Middlesbrough.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - played all 90 but could only manage a 0-0 home tie with Roeselare.
-Matt Pickens - Queens Park Rangers - was on the bench for his first game with QPR, and they won 2-3 at Southampton.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - was on the bench as the team lost 1-2 at home to Munich 1860.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came on in the 90th minute and played the dying seconds of a 1-1 home draw with Birmingham.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played all 90 and lost 1-2 at home to Greuther Furth. Unfortunately for Neven he gave up a foul close to goal, and on the free kick his man shook him loose and headed home the winning goal.
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - came on as a sub in the 86th minute as they won 2-4 on the road at Piacenza.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - started and played 83 minutes as the team won 1-2 on the road at Kaiserslautern.
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Michael Bradley scored in his 6th consecutive match for Heerenveen. That gives him 17 on the season in all competitions for his club.
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When was the last time there were NO Americans in the first 11 for Fulham. It happened this weekend. But there were 4 on the bench, and 2 came on as subs.
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As of today there are 9 American players in the Premiership relegation zone. That is kind of embarrassing.
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Tim Bresnahan of the Golden Boot blog has a Q & A with former New England forward Pat Noonan as he heads off to Aalesund in Norway.
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Turns out last week wasn't the first time the Jeremiah White had bad facial damage from the beautiful game. During his college days at Wake Forest he suffered a similar nasty injury. (thanks to Alex for this link)
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

Less than a week ago Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times called Guatemalan coach Hernan Dario Gomez the best in CONCACAF, but after his team was pulverized 5-0 by Argentina's Olympic qualifying team he has resigned. That is a rough way to go out. And the lesson here is: Don't let Cardenas proclaim you to be the best at something. Cuz within a matter of hours you will be screwed. Hahahahaha.
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Copa Libertadores

The final qualifying round.
2nd leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Tue Feb 12
Audax Italiano v Chico (3-4)
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Arsenal, Lanus, Atlas, Cruziero & Cienciano have advanced to the group stage, which begins as early as next week for some groups. One spot is left and it will be filled next Thursday the 12th. That same day a couple of Group Stage games will also kick off the tournament officially.
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South American News

The Argentine league kicked off the Spring season this weekend. Defending champs Lanus won, perennial favorites River Plate won as well, and the champs from last spring Estudiantes beat Banfield 2-0, but many times champs Boca Juniors were held 1-1 by Rosario Central.
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One of du Nord's favorite young players is Andres D'Alessandro, who left Real Zaragosa in Spain during the January transfer window to sign with San Lorenzo in his native Argentina. He would have been a fantastic MLS pick up.
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Big Euro Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
Sevilla 1-1 Barcelona - 1 point does neither team any good, especially when league leaders Madrid win 7-0.
PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Heerenveen - left PSV with a safe 9 point lead over Heerenveen.
Manchester United 1-2 Manchester City - on a day of commemoration for tragic deaths at Man Utd 50 years ago, the home team succumbed to their cross town rivals for the first time since 1974 at Old Trafford, and fell behind league leaders Arsenal. This win ended Man City's bad slide.
Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool - no score and no advancement for either side.
Bayern Munich 1-1 Werder Bremen - Bayern did what they had to do to keep their lead at the top.
Borussia Dortmund 2-3 Schalke - the win moves Schalke back to within 2 points of second place. And there are few things better than winning the Ruhr derby, especially on the road.
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European News

Phil Ball of Soccernet tells all about Real Madrid's demolition of Valladolid - a 7-0 victory!
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From the Guardian:
-David James tells why he digs about Fabio Capello. We here at du Nord just want to say that we always love the articles from the England & Portsmouth keeper.
-Sid Lowe & all of La Liga sees (finally) why Real Madrid paid a stupid fortune for Arjen Robben.
-Raphael Honigstein wonders if Luca Toni is making enemies at Bayern.
-Paolo Bandini on that 18 year old kid who won the game for Milan. Wha? It's not The Duck? Then who?
-All of Manchester shares a moment of silence. The n City gets to enjoy the rest of the day.
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I loved the look of the Manchester derby. Both teams wearing really old shirts, and all the fans with those really old scarves. Very cool.
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Another du Nord fave football player is Moritz Volz of Fulham, and for the Times he takes us behind the scenes in footballing media land.
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The Times tells us about these Rich-Bitch Fat-Cats who own Queens Park Rangers, and how much of their bounty they are willing to spend.
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The 100th episode of the EPL Talk podcast is up, and it's a special one. "The Best of". Highlights from the first 99 interviews. Download or listen now. Congrats to the Gaffer on the century mark.
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Football Italia with the high & low lights of Week 22 in Serie A.
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For the 3rd league match in a row, leaders Inter Milan have scored a late, decisive, and highly controversial goal to at least win or draw. Are they being investigated for shady dealings now? What would the press be saying if this was Juve snagging points in this fashion?
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US Soccer President Sunil Gulati says that unless FIFA bless the idea of the Premiership playing games on foreign soil, then the federation will not allow it in America.
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Elderly Italian Giovanni Trapattoni will be named the next coach of Ireland. He has a pretty damn good pedigree.
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FIFA.com has a Q & A with England midfielder Owen Hargreaves about their new coach Fabio Capello. Whenever I read or hear Owen Hargreaves name I always think of the old lady in Throw Mama From The Train barking out that name in an incredibly low guttural voice "OWEN"! Pure genius.
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times talks to former England players and coach Glenn Hoddle who is working on starting a youth academy in Spain.
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Real Madrid forward Robinho tore a stomach muscle and could be out for quite a while.
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The UEFA Cup resumes later this week. Stay tuned for match ups.
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World News

Iran has hired former Serbia coach Javier Clemente of Spain to take over their team.
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African Cup of Nations

Final Matches & Score:
-Sun Feb 10
Cameroon 0-1 Egypt - goal by Mohamed Abotreika!
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The best part was that this was not played like your usual championship match. No one sat back, no one was conservative. Both teams went at it with end to end burners. Great stuff, and a deserving champion.
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Paul Doyle of the Guardian raves about the Pharaohs!
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Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated gives the final match a big OH!
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And Lalas writing for the New York Times Goal blog says Egypt now has to do this at the World Cup level to prove their true quality.
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Several stories from FIFA.com:
-The Pharaohs are kings again
-Aboutreika, Egypt's crown prince
-Zidan revels in right decision
-Ecstatic fans welcome home Pharaohs
-Who was Ghana 2008's top man?
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Reuters says the tournament wasn't run nearly as well as the play on the field. Is this a precursor to South Africa?
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Jonathan Wilson of the Independent calls the performance on the field a big success.
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Here are the award winners from the tournament:
-Player Of The Tournament:
Hosny Abd Rabou - Egypt
-Best Young Player:
Alexander Song - Cameroon
-High Goal Scorer:
Samuel Eto’o - 5 goals - Cameroon
-Best XI:
G:
Essam El-Hadary - Egypt
D:
Geremi - Cameroon
Wael Gomaa - Egypt
Michael Essien - Ghana
M:
Sulley Muntari - Ghana
Yaya Toure - Cote d'Ivoire
Alexandre Song - Cameroon
Hosny Abd Rabo - Egypt
Mohamed Aboutreika - Egypt
F:
Amr Zaky - Egypt
Manucho - Angola
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How was Samuel Eto'o and his 5 goals not on that list?
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Speaking of Eto'o, his club team Barcelona must have let out a giant groan when he pulled up lame in the last 10 minutes of the game clutching at his hamstring.
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Other African News

Bloomberg with a very UNFLATTERING story about South Africa and their WC2010 prep. (thanks to Jesse for sending me this story)
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A player in the Gabon league collapsed on the field and died, and there were no medics on hand to help him. Damn.
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Finally

Here is proof of what is wrong with my distant cousins the English - Prince William and 47 of his closest friend went to an Indian restaurant in York, spent 1300 Pounds, and didn't leave a tip! A fine fare thee well? Doth though not haveth enough pocket scratch? In America we just tag on an extra 15% for all parties over 6. Better safe than royally stiffed.