Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Never Enough Speed News

We will get our first chance of 2008 to see MLS teams in action on television tonight. It's the Pan-Pacific Championship and you can see both Los Angeles & Houston on ESPN Classic. See schedule below

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From a LA Times story on high school age kids interest in soccer in that city: "In terms of bodies, there are probably more students playing soccer than any other sport in our section." (see full story below in Soccer In America section)

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Inter forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic after the loss: “Why don’t you go ask Materazzi what happened?"


MLS News

Ian Plenderleith of the US Soccer Players Assoc gives us a round up of MLS news, rumors etc etc. He also unspins some of Mo Johnston's bull.
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Electric New Paper of Singapore checks in again with Real Salt Lake trainee Indra Sahdan. Good stuff, very honest and open words from the player. This is the second day in a row we have heard from this player, and I hope the paper continues with it.
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Billy Witz of the LA Daily News says Chivas USA is ablaze with preseason injuries. But isn't this a hell of a lot better than postseason injuries like last year?
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Witz also reports that Kyle Martino did not go with the Galaxy on their Asian trip, and this could very well mean that he is out of the team.
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Goal.com has an article written by LA Galaxy midfielder Kelly Gray on training camp so far.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail writes about Portuguese midfielder Joao Pinto who is with TFC for a try out.
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James Edward of the Deseret Morning News looks at the fairly long list of first year pro's who could make the Salt Lake 28 player roster.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune is in Florida gives us 3 chunks of Fire training camp news on this Red Card blog. One - Two - Three. Very good stuff.
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MLSnet has an article on a kid who came up through the Fulham youth system, ended up at an American college and is now in training camp with DC United trying to make their roster.
-I seem to remember that DC had another Fulham youth player last year in preseason, Yinka Casal, but he amounted to nothing special.
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The maniacal Steven Wells of the Guardian gives us yet another shot of love for those supporters in Philly with no team - The Sons of Ben. Really funny. By the way, Wells lives in Philly, so its not like an Englishman picked up on the story from across the pond.
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The Edwardsville Intelligencer of suburban St Louis updates us by talking to potential MLS owner Jeff Cooper about their cities chances of landing a team.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Lynn U 2-1 Salt Lake in Lauderdale FL
-Wed Feb 20
UANL Tigres (Mexico) v Dallas in Monterrey
Chicago v Toronto in Bradenton FL
Chivas USA v UC Riverside at HDC
Bermuda National Team v New England in Bermuda
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose v Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado v Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
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The Royal Gazette of Bermuda previews tonight's rematch of Saturday when New England game Bermuda a 6-1 beating.
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Pan-Pacific Championship

From Honolulu Hawaii, with all games to be shown on ESPN Classic. The official website.
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The 4 teams:
Los Angeles Galaxy
Houston Dynamo
Gamba Osaka
Sydney FC
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Feb 20
Los Angeles v Gamba - live at 10pm central time on ESPN Classic
Houston v Sydney - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Winner v Winner - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
Loser v Loser - delayed at 2:30am central time on ESPN Classic
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Nick Green on his 100 Percent Soccer blog says it looks like Landon Donovan will be on the sideline due to a tendon problem.
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Glenn Davis on his Soccer Hour blog made a reference to the poor quality of the turf in the stadium in Hawaii. I wonder how bad it is when the NFL just played their pro bowl in that stadium a week or so ago.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports is in Hawaii for this tournament and gives us a taste of Beckmania.
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The Honolulu Advertiser has an article on native son Brian Ching.
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The Honolulu Star Bulletin writes about the top players in the tournament.
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Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America offers up pluses and minuses of MLS teams playing in the Pan Pacific tournament.
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MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro!

Glenn Davis on his Soccer Hour blog whispers to us a vague rumor of Houston signing an Argentine forward. No more info to be had.
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James Cardenas (no relation to Jaime) on the Sideline Views blog found an article in Argentina where Juan Sebastian Veron says he definitely wants to come play in MLS and he wants Juan Roman Riquelme to come with him.
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Soccer By Ives says that New York would probably include midfielder Dane Richards in a deal to acquire Wilman Conde from Chicago.
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USL First Division & PDL

All First Division forwards cheered this week when Montreal announced that their excellent defender Mauricio Vincello has retired.
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Former DC United defender John Wilson has re-signed with another ex club of his - the Charleston Battery.
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Vancouver re-signed forward Jason Jordan.
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US Soccer News

Yanks Abroad talks to Oguchi Onyewu about the meaning of any USA v Mexico match.
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Dave Lifton of the US Soccer Players Assoc does a Q & A with former USA and MLS star defender Marcelo Balboa.
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Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune says the USA is definitely preparing a bid for the 2018 World Cup, and they will have plenty of competition for it.
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Soccer In America

This Is American Soccer has an interview of one of the very top American soccer writers Andrea Canales, as conducted by David Keyes of one of the very best American soccer blogs Culture of Soccer.
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The LA Times with yet another story on youth soccer in the city. High School soccer does not have enough spots/teams to handle all the kids.
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FMF

Did Luis Bueno at Sports Illustrated uncover a Mexican soccer scandal? Does Guadalajara have a none-Mexican on their team? Was he born in America? It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel the same as I did before I read the story.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Audax Italiano 1-2 Sportivo Luqueno - Aud goal by Miguel Angel Romero. Luq goals by Roberto Servin & Luis Nunez.
Chivas Guadalajara 2-0 San Jose - goal by Edgar Solis & Sergio Santana(PK).
Coronel Bolognesi 0-1 Nacional - goal by Bruno Fornaroli.
-Wed Feb 20
Liga Universitaria Quito v Fluminense
Arsenal v Libertad
America v Universidad Catolica
Maracaibo v Boca Juniors
-Thu Feb 21
Atlas v Colo Colo
Deportivo Cuenca v Estudiantes
San Lorenzo v Cruzeiro
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Group Stage Standings
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European News

George Hasenecz at Goal.com wonders if Fulham, with their third coach in less than 12 months, has what it takes to stay in the Premiership this season. (thanks to Brian for this one)
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Tim Vickery of Sports Illustrated writes about Ronaldo's possible future.
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The Times with a story on the 2 talented Toure brothers - Kolo of Arsenal and Yaya of Barcelona.
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The Times also has a story on the return of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff to the club where he became famous, Ajax, as their new Technical Director.
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UEFA Champions League

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Tue Feb 19
Schalke 1-0 Porto - goal by Kevin Kuranyi
Liverpool 2-0 Inter - goals by Dirk Kuyt & Steven Gerrard.
Roma 2-1 Real Madrid - Rom goals by David Pizzaro & Mancini. RM goal by Raul Gonzalez.
Olympiacos 0-0 Chelsea
-Wed Feb 20
Arsenal v Milan -
Celtic v Barcelona -
Lyon v Manchester United -
Fenerbahce v Sevilla -
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World News

Grahame Jones of the LA Times with a world soccer news roundup - Corner Kicks.
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Rave Ubha of the Seattle Post Intelligencer with his world soccer news round up too.
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African News

Berti Vogts has stepped down from his coaching position in Nigeria.

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