It's Just So Gnarly Dude News

Oh Nelly, what an ass kicking Gamba laid on the Dynamo in the Pan Pacific Championship final!! Have you ever seen a Dominic Kinnear team get beat like that ??? (see MLS Preseason Section below)

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Could things be any worse for Americans playing in England's top division right now? Not much. Of the twelve 9 are currently sitting in the relegation zone, 1 is having a great year, 1 is having a year we have come to expect, and the other 10 are not impressing anyone. There are no real signs that Derby, Fulham or Reading are going to turn it around either. I find it a little embarrassing as a fan, trying to defend our boys.


MLS News

Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe with an article on the fast preseason start for New England's 2nd year forward Kenny Mansally from Gambia.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram checks in on FC Dallas preseason.
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Bob Luder of the Kansas City checks in with his local club, the Wizards concerning their preseason form.
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John Haydon of the Washington Times checks in with DC United and spring training.
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Michael C Lewis of the Salt Lake Tribune on RSL's acquisition of midfielder Dema Kovalenko from NYRB.
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Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail On Soccer blog gives his reasons why Joao Pinto was not the man for Toronto FC.
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Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch talks to new Crew Technical Director Brian Bliss.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet gives us all the positives for MLS expansion in Philadelphia.
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The Delco Times of Philly looks ahead to MLS in their city with a Sunday paper feature: Recipe For Success
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A Philadelphia Inquirer columnist with his thoughts on a MLS team in his city.
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Goal Seattle scanned and posted an article from a magazine called Washington CEO, about the new Seattle MLS team.
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Jeff Rusnak of Southern Florida's Sun Sentinel has some details on a potential MLS team in Miami. Some very interesting stuff in here.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose 2-1 Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado 2-2 Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
-Sat Feb 23
Columbus 2-1 Chivas USA in Valencia CA
Dallas 4-0 West Texas A & M at PHP
-Sun Feb 24
San Jose 0-0 DC at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
-Mon Feb 25
Ventura County Fusion v Columbus at Buena High in Ventura
-Tue Feb 26
Dallas v SMU
-Wed Feb 27
Dorados (Mexico) v Chicago in Sinaloa
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I think this picture shows San Jose's new uniform. And check out that DC United shirt, some sorta training gear I assume.
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Pan-Pacific Championship

Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Championship: Osaka Gamba 6-1 Houston - Osa goals by Bare(4), Lucas & Masato Yamazaki. Hou goal by Ricardo Clark.
Third Place: Los Angeles 2-1 Sydney - LA goals by Ely Allen & Josh Tudela. Syd goal by Brendan Renaud.
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Jeff Carlisle of Soccernet gives us the 411 on Houston's near historic beat down.
-The loss sure gives Houston a lot of questions to ask themselves.
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To make it even worse for Houston, they scored first in that title match! And they looked great for 15 minutes. Then they just stopped playing. Did they think it was going to be as easy as playing Sydney? Wrong em boyo! That big Brazilian forward Bare was amazing. Is he that good, or was Houston that bad? They made him look like an All-World First 11 player.
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Carlisle also mentions that LA forward Carlos Ruiz took the field as part of a LA v Houston reserve match on Friday.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a funny (intentional?) comment from Beckman after the consolation win, and some other soccer world news.
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Two different places I found listed the attendance on Saturday night at 23,000. But I have not seen anything officially listed at all. It did look like more people than Wednesday night which was credited at 15,000 but reports said was really more like half that.
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MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune reports on his Red Card blog that defender Wilman Conde did not travel with Chicago to their training camp in Mexico this week.
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3rd Degree is reporting that Dallas midfielder Juan Toja left a preseason game v West Texas A&M with a bruised left knee. How bad is it?
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Is that Santino Quaranta back training with his old club DC United? He was released by New York after last season.
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Salt Lake has released defender Ritchie Kotschau.
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French striker Steve Marlett is still training with Chicago, so at least he must not be terrible.
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Shawn Mitchell on his Covering The Crew blog reports that Cuban defector Osvaldo Alonso is getting a try out with Columbus. He came to America last summer with his countries Gold Cup team and left in the middle to seek asylum.
-Mitchell also reported that the Crew were close to signing Sandro Jose da Silva, but apparently things have changed. They also have Sierra Leone forward Mamadu Bah on a try out.
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There is still lot of talk about Costan Rican forward Argenis Fernandez joining New England from Santos in Brazil, but very few if any facts have arrived to supplement.
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The Offside hears a rumor about LA trying to get young goalkeeper Chris Seitz from Salt Lake. I bet RSL would swap him for Beckman or Landy, but nothing else.
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Team USA

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with a look at one of the USA's fastest rising stars, Maurice Edu. via Sports Illustrated.
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USA Olympic Team

American Soccer Daily give us THEIR break down of the roster for qualifying that starts in 16 days. Coach Peter Nowak will start a training camp on or around Mar 1.
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Soccer In America

Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune has an interview with actor Will Ferrell about, you know, funny stuff, and some soccer too.
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Americans In Europe

How'd their recent matches go:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on in the 83rd minute and the team tied 1-1 at home with Braga.
-Gregg Berhalter - 1860 Munich - was suspended after last weeks Red Card, and the team drew 0-0 at Koln.
-Carlos Bocanegra - Fulham - was on the bench for the teams 0-1 home loss to West Ham.
-Michael Bradley - Heerenveen - went the full 90 but lost again this week, 2-3 at home to Nijmegen. 2 weeks ago they were in 2nd place, but now they are in 6th.
-Steve Cherundolo - Hannover - went all 90 but lost 2-1 at Bochum and Cherundolo scored an Own Goal for Bochum's first.
-Bobby Convey - Reading - did not suit up for the teams 1-2 home loss to Aston Villa
-Clint Dempsey - Fulham - started and played 76 minutes, replaced by Eddie Johnson, as the team lost 0-1 at home to West Ham.
-Jay DeMerit - Watford - came off the bench in the 81st minute as the team got a 0-0 home tie with Preston.
-Joe Enochs - Osnabruck - warmed the bench in a 2-2 home tied with 1st place Monchengladbach.
-Benny Feilhaber - Derby County - did not dress for the teams 2-0 loss at Wigan.
-Brad Friedel - Blackburn - played all 90 and led his team to a 4-1 home derby win over Bolton.
-Cory Gibbs - Charlton - out injured, but finally training again.
-Joshua Grenier - Koblenz - at Kaiserslautern today.
-Marcus Hahnemann - Reading - went the full 90 but lost again, this time 1-2 at home to Aston Villa.
-Tim Howard - Everton - at Manchester City today.
-Nate Jaqua - Rheindorf Altach - started and scored again, this time the game winner to beat Rapid Vienna 2-1 at home.
-Eddie Johnson - Fulham - made his debut in the 76th minute replacing Clint Dempsey, but the team lost 0-1 at home to west Ham.
-Kasey Keller - Fulham - was on the bench for the teams 0-1 home loss to West Ham.
-Eddie Lewis - Derby County - was on the bench but did not play in the teams 2-0 road loss at Wigan.
-Clint Mathis - Ergotolis - did not start, lost at Panionios 2-1.
-Brian McBride - Fulham - already back to full 90 minute performance level, but they lost 0-1 at home to West Ham.
-Oguchi Onyewu - Standard - went all 90 as usual but the team could only get a 0-0 tie at home v Genk, and dropped back out of their 1st place tie.
-Matt Pickens - Queens Park Rangers - on the bench for his teams 1-1 home draw with Sheffield United.
-Luis Robles - Kaiserslautern - at home versus Koblenz today.
-Frank Simek - Sheffield Wednesday - still out with the ankle injury, but the team beat Cardiff 1-0 at home.
-Jonathan Spector - West Ham - came on in the 90th minute to help preserve a 0-1 road win at Fulham.
-Neven Subotic - Mainz - played all 90 minutes at centerback in a 2-2 home tie with Carl Zeiss Jena.
-Danny Szetela - Brescia - did not play as the team won at home 2-0 over Bologna.
-Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich - came on as a sub in the 77th minute as they drew 0-0 at Koln.
-Sal Zizzo - Hannover - on the bench but did not play in the teams 2-1 loss at Bochum.
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CONCACAF News

Here is a slightly odd friendly that I just read about: Mexico v Ghana on Mar 26 in London.
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The Toronto Sun talks to another respected soccer person in Canada, Bob Iarusci, who is very upset with the way their national federation is being run. He better watch out or Jack Warner will be after him.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:-Feb 26
Dep Univ San Martin v Universidad Catolica
Estudiantes LP v Lanus
Caracas v Bamin Real Potosi
-Feb 27
Atletico Nacional v Sao Paulo
River Plate v America
Flamengo v Cienciano
-Feb 28
Cucuta Deportivo v San Jose
Maracaibo v Colo Colo
Cruzeiro v Caracas
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Group Stage Standings
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Tim Vickery of the BBC analizes the first 2 weeks of Libertdores action.
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European News

If you really need to see the horrific photos of the broken leg of Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva then go ahead and search for them. But I am not gonna link to em. It's just way too nasty. He could be out a year, and will definitely miss Euro 08 for Croatia. Damn.
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Martin Taylor of Birmingham who broke Eduardo's leg is reportedly getting death threats from Croatians. I don't know if I believe this. The English tabloid hysteria has made me cautious.
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Simon Kuper of the Financial Times with a feature story on Arsenal midfield prodigy-turned-star Cesc Fabregas.
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Football Italia with the Winners and Losers from Week 24.
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Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu strained knee ligaments and will be out a month.
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Several from The Times:
-The Game blog has Part 2 of their podcast interview with Frank Lampard and Gianluca Vialli.
-Guillem Balague with a great article on Tottenham coach Juande Ramos.
-Martin Samuel looks at the continued slide into the bottom of the cess-pit for former England star Paul Gascoigne.
-Fulham midfielder Moritz Volz continues with his excellent insights - this time its on the craziness of goalkeepers. He fails to mention his own teammate Kasey Kellers love of the heavy metal music.
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Several more from The Guardian:
-Sid Lowe reports that Barcelona's yo-yo is headed back "up" in Spain, while Madrid's goes down.
-Paolo Bandini says Juventus are now bitching that EVERYONE has ganged up against them. Awwwwwwwwww.
-Raphael Honistein writes about big money beginning to make decisions for die Bundesliga, and weekend league buffoonery.
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Werder Bremen star playmaker Diego was Red Carded and suspended for an additional 2 games for retaliating after rough foul by a Frankfurt player. The ref usually sees the first guy in an angry shoving match, but somehow he ALWAYS sees the second guy.
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English League/Carling Cup - Final

-Sun Feb 24 at Wembley Stadium
Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea - Tot goals by Dimitar Berbatov & Jonathan Woodgate. Chel goal by Didier Drogba.
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Great job by Spurs & their defender Jonathan Woodgate! How nice is it to see someone else win in England for a change. The football in that country is so predictable that I can barely watch anything more than highlights. And that bums me out. But Woodgate who scored the game winner deserves extra praise because after 3 or 4 seasons in a row out with injuries most of us wrote him off and openly mocked him. I know I did. Go huge thumbs up to him personally.
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But the Daily Mail with some really trashy pictures of Tottenham players later that night all messed up and getting tossed out of a nightclub for acting like idiots.
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Key Euro League Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Schalke - Bayer making their move at a good time.
Fulham 0-1 West Ham - a smaller London derby.
Sevilla 5-0 Zaragoza - one of the big underachievers makes their move.
Bayern Munchen 1-1 Hamburg - #1 v #3 stalemate.
Blackburn 4-1 Bolton - the "We are both just North of Manchester, and hate each other in a small town way" derby.
Roma 1-0 Fiorentina - the opposite momentum of these two teams continues.
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World News

FIFA.com does a Q & A with Jorge Fossati, the coach of the Qatar national team. They are currently recruiting players to come to their country, get expedited citizenship, and play for the national team.
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Adnan Hamad who coached Iraq to the Asian Cup title last year has been rehired.
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J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets News

The Newcastle Jets beat the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 to win the Australian A-League championship!!! Congrats Newc's.
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Central Coast's goalkeeper was suspended for 15 months after the matching for hitting the referee. The keeper thought the ref missed a hand ball call and flipped out. See ya in the 09 season buddy.
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This Is The End

Martin Rogers and Ian Edwards of Yahoo Sports have a soccer blog now. Good stuff. Check out this back and forth between Landon Donovan and David Beckham.
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Some awesome "roofball" video footage, from the folks who make FIFA Streetball. (thanks to Mr. CP for this great stuff)