My Favorite Part Of Getting Here Early News

From the English Tabloid rumor mill: Everton boss David Moyes will have to come up with £4.5m ($9 million) for Heerenveen midfielder Michael Bradley.


MLS News

James Edward of the Deseret Morning News with an article Salt Lake's new defensive acquisition Nat Borchers.
-Edward then updates us on the teams spring training, and mentions that RSL's 4th Argentine player, midfielder Matias Cordoba has gotten his visa is en route to meet up with the team in Florida. He is on loan from Argentinos Juniors.
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Frank Dell'apa of the Boston Globe reports that New England has signed left sided Honduran midfielder Mauricio Castro from Olimpia.
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Jonah Freedman of Sports Illustrated drops into LA to check on both Galaxy & Chivas USA preseason action.
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Forward Andy Herron has been signed again by the Chicago Fire. This was the team that originally brought him to the league. He played very little for Columbus last season. Will he help? Will he even make the roster?
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Ives Galarcep of the Herald News says it's official that New York has added striker Oscar Echeverry to their squad. He is a Colombian who last played for Colombia's biggest team Atletico Nacional.
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The Washington Post with another update today on the site/deal for possible DC United stadium.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports gives us a look at LA's first Ruud Gullit training camp.
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Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer asks New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio how many forwards will make the roster.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram writes about the arrival of Mexican defender Davino in Dallas, and wonders if people are right or wrong when they say he is too slow.
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Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch gives us a little more info on Ze German, Lars Ricken, who is trying out with the Crew.
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New England's official team blog has photos from training in Bermuda. Yes, the Rev's have a blog too now. Excellent.
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Colorado has been using this picture of new star midfielder Christian Gomez. Where did they get it taken? Sears or JC Penney?
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Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer with his always great Friday collection - The Barometer.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Feb 14
Columbus 2-0 USA U17s in Bradenton FL
Toronto 1-2 Odense Boldklub (Denmark) in Bradenton FL
-Fri Feb 15
New York 3-1 Hammarby (Sweden) at HDC
-Sat Feb 16
Columbus v U South Florida in Bradenton FL
San Jose v Houston at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco
Kansas City v Toronto (split squad for KC) in Bradenton FL
Kansas City v Chicago (split squad for KC) in Bradenton FL
Dallas v U Memphis at PHP
Bermuda v New England in Bermuda against the national team
Chivas USA v Japan U23 at HDC
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The San Jose Mercury News has an audio slide show from the New Earthquakes first preseason match the other night. Nothing great, but decent enough.
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MLS Rumor City

Soccer By Ives is reporting a real odd one - LA Galaxy 2nd year center back Ty Harden has retired from the game to work in the normal world. I sure didn't see that one coming.
-Billy Witz of the Daily Breeze on Harden. It seems that everyone is in the dark on this one, but he told the team 2 weeks ago that he was done. The Galaxy has still not acknowledged that he is gone.
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Steven Goff of the Soccer Insider then reports that LA is making a deal with DC United to acquire centerback Greg Vanney as cover. The Galaxy will ship young midfielder Quavas Kirk to the east coast as compensation.
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Goal.com talked to Houston coach Dom Kinnear about the possibility of Benny Feilhaber joining his team and DK said: “That’s the first I’ve heard anything about Benny coming here.”
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The talk of Mexican forward Chuy Mendoza heading to the Chicago Fire will not die down. Morelia is his current in a long string of Mexican teams.
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England's Daily Mail claims that MLS #2 Ivan Gazidis has turned down an offer to become the Executive Chairman for Manchester City. I have to admit it's kind of amazing that he would turn down that job. He must feel pretty damn good about the future of MLS.
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Team USA

I missed this on Wednesday - Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune gives us his analysis of USA v Mexico from the match the week prior. He always has a great perspective on things.
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Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc give us the options for Team USA right back beyond Steve Cherundolo. Cuz Drew Moor sure proved he was not the answer v Mexico despite his excellent pass to Jozy Altidore for the second goal.
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Soccer In America

The LA Times with a story on the young people of their city who love one sport above all others (by a long shot). That game is soccer.
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Americans In Europe

The Fulham website spends a few minutes chatting with Eddie Johnson about his new team.
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American Soccer Daily talks to Andrew Jacobson who passed up a chance to play for DC United when he got offered a deal with Lorient of Ligue Un in France. He was recommended to the club by Pascal Bedrossian who played with the Chicago Fire for a short time.
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One of Clint Mathis's teammates at Ergotelis in Greece faces a 2 years suspension after testing positive for cocaine. Damn.
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Games played midweek:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - came on for the last 5 minutes of a UEFA Cup home win, 1-0 over Nuremberg.
-Tim Howard - Everton - played all 90 of a UEFA Cup match at Brann and came home a 2-0 winner.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Feb 14
Cienciano 2-1 Nacional
Lanus 3-1 Danubio
-Tue Feb 19
Audax Italiano v Sportivo Luqueno
Chivas Guadalajara v San Jose
Coronel Bolognesi v Nacional
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Group Stage Standings
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European News

FIFA boss Sepp Blatter says that there is no way his organization will let the Premiership stage an entire round of games outside their own country. Let the showdown begin.
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Barney Ronay of the Guardian spends a day with a lower division English team and comes away with this story.
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Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneider suffered a broken rib at practice today, and could be out for a couple of weeks.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune says that Arsenal does not miss recently departed star Thierry Henry.
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The Independent talks to infamous former Arsenal defender Martin Keown.
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Ronaldo - Bento Ribeiro - El Fenomeno

Kevin McCarra of the Guardian writes about the knee-blow-out-disaster of the brilliant Ronaldo. Including a great career highlights timeline.
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Not sure if Ronaldo is one of the all time great goal scorers? Gnaw on these stats - no one recently has come with a mile of this:
-Cruziero - 12 goals in 13 games
-PSV - 55 goals in 57 games
-Barcelona - 47 goals in 49 games
-Inter - 49 goals in 69 games
-Real Madrid - 83 goals in 127 games
-All club games including cup competitions etc - 240 goals in 392 games!
-Brazil - 62 goals in 97 games
-World Cup - 15 goals in 19 games
And 3 times he won the FIFA World Player Of The Year, despite blowing out his right knee twice at the peak of his career with Inter.
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And check out this video from You Tube of one of his great games - Manchester United 4-3 Real Madrid - 2003 Champions League - Ronny nabs all 3! (What a game!)
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James Lawton of the Independent says despite some of the "scandal" surrounding Ronaldo he is undoubtedly great.
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FIFA.com with an article on the career of Ronaldo.
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UEFA Cup

Round of 32 - Knockout - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 13
Zenit St Petersburg 1-0 Villarreal - goal by Pavel Pogrebnyak.
Galatasaray 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
AEK Athens 1-1 Getafe - AEK goal by Ismael Blanco. Get goal by Ruben De la Red.
Brann 0-2 Everton - goals by Leon Osman & Victor Anichebe.
Werder Bremen 3-0 Braga - goals by Naldo, Daniel Jensen & Hugo Almeida
Olympique Marseille 3-0 Spartak Moskva - goals by Benoit Cheyrou, Taye Taiwo & Mamadou Niang.
PSV Eindhoven 2-0 Helsingborg - goals by Timmy Simons(PK) & Danko Lazovic.
Anderlecht 2-1 Girondins de Bordeaux - And goals by Jan Polak & Mbo Mpenza. Bord goal by Jussie(PK).
Glasgow Rangers 0-0 Panathanikos
Sporting Clube de Portugal 2-0 Basel - both goals by Simon Vukcevic.
-Thu Feb 14
Aberdeen 2-2 Bayern Munchen - Abr goals by Josh Walker & Sone Aluko. Bay goals by Miroslav Klose & Hamit Altintop.
Zurich 1-3 Hamburger - Zur goal by Alain Rochat. Ham goals by David Jarolim, Ivica Olic & Piotr Trochowski.
Rosenborg 0-1 Fiorentina - goal by Adrian Mutu.
Slavia Praha 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur - Slav goal by David Strihavka. Tott goals by Dimitar Berbatov & Robbie Keane.
Bolton 1-0 Atletico Madrid - goal by El Hadji Diouf.
Benfica 1-0 Nurnberg - goal by Ariza Makukula.
-All 2nd Leg Matches on Thu Feb 21
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During Everton's win in Norway on Wednesday night, some one in the stands through a pool ball at American keeper Tim Howard. Luckily they missed. As the match ended several Everton fans who had traveled to take in the game, ran on to the field. I guess the security was not too hot.
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Euro League Cup Competitions

English FA Cup
5th Round (16 teams) Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 16
Bristol Rovers v Southampton
Cardiff v Wolverhampton
Chelsea v Huddersfield
Coventry v West Bromich
Liverpool v Barnsley
Manchester United v Arsenal
Preston v Portsmouth
Sheffield United v Middlesbrough
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The Times blog The Game previews this round.
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The Telegraph says the FA Cup needs a real underdog to emerge and breathe some life into the tournament.
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Big Euro League Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
-Sat Feb 16
Juventus v Roma - #3 v #2
Manchester United v Arsenal - 5th Round of the FA Cup
-Sun Feb 17
Club Brugge v Standard Liege - #1 v #2 in Belgium
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World News

Goal.com give us a list of 11 players currently at clubs that are not nearly good enough to hold their talent. Nice list.
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Lastly

If you want some real You Tube goose bumps just watch Manchester United come from 1-0 down after the 90th minute to steal the 1999 Champions League title from Bayern Munich. I remember watching this happen on TV and just going nuts with my friends! It was incomprehensible.