Reality Is The New Black News

US Soccer is cranking up unprecedented pre and post game action for USA v Mexico. Check this out:
-Tue Feb 5
Live Pre-game Press Conference on USSoccer.com at 4:15pm central
-Wed Feb 6
Replay of USA v Mexico – Feb 7 07 on ESPN Classic at 11am central
Studio 90 Pre-Game Show on USSoccer.com at 4pm central
Live Look-in on Stadium Warm-ups on USSoccer.com at 7:30pm central
Pre-Game & Game on ESPN2 at 8pm central
Live Post-Game Show on USSoccer.com and ESPN360.com at 10:30pm central

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The 2008 MLS Schedule is set to be released on Thursday

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Remember back a few years to when Ricardo LaVolpe ran the Mexican team. Every time they stumbled there was a yapping dog going nuts behind him. That yapper was named Hugo Sanchez, and he yapped loudest and longest when LaVolpe pushed through a plan to naturalize Brazilian midfielder Zinha, and then include him in the Mexico team at Germany 06. Sanchez went crazy about this, saying it was an insult to real Mexicans blah blah blah. So now, in completely hyprocritcal turnabout, Sanchez calls Zinha in to his team for the USA match. Yap yap yap, flip-flop.


USA v Mexico

Training in Houston TX in preparation for next weeks match v Mexico - Wed Feb 6 at 8pm central from Houston TX on ESPN2.
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Official team blog.
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Word from Houston is that both Eddie Lewis and Bobby Convey are injury free and ready for Wednesday! Yes!
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The USMNT blog has a Q & A with Lewis about his NON-injury injury.
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US Soccer has audio of coach Bob Bradley and some of his players talking to the media in Houston yesterday.
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Lots of great stuff from the Houston Chronicle:
-Glenn Davis on the rivalry.
-Davis also has a Q & A with Landon Donovan on his Soccer Hour blog, plus other USA practice session notes.
-While Bernardo Fallas on his Soccer y Futbol blog takes in the Mexico practice.
-Great video from Soccer y Futbol.
-A USA v Mexico quiz. How did you do? I answered them all correctly until the last one, which I knew, and blew it.
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Ives Galarcep on Soccer By Ives says that Mexico has changed their tune compared to a year ago when it comes to talking about the USA.
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Jack Bell of the New York Times Goal blog talks to Benny Feilhaber about his call up for this game, and what is not going on in Derby County.
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Mark Ziegler of the San Diego Union Tribune says this new group of Mexican players could be a "Golden Generation".
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Sports Illustrated on Mexico's new #1 in goal - Guillermo Ochoa.
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Soccer 365 with an editorial on the heat of the USA-Mexico rivalry.
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MLS News

Nick Green of the Daily Breeze cover the opening of LA Galaxy & Chivas USA preseason training camp - it's an odd mix of players for both teams.
-Celestine Babayaro is training with the Galaxy.
-Raphael Wicky is training with CUSA.
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Grahame Jones of the LA Times on Galaxy 08 Day 1.
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Billy Witz of the Press-Telegram says there is less frenzy around Beckman on his first day with LA this season.
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Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise looks at the beginning of important but different kinds of seasons for LA Galaxy & Chivas USA.
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Damian Calhoun of the Orange County Register on the start of the Galaxy preseason.
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Larry Millson of the Toronto Globe & Mail on the return from injury of TFC midfielder Ronnie O'Brien. ROB was the key to TFC last year, and he was hurt for most of it - the record showed that starkly.
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Tobias Xavier Lopez of the Fort Worth Star Telegram with a story on Dallas forward Kenny Cooper who will be "given the keys to the company car".
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Diego Aparicio of the Dallas Morning News with the same story.
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Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree brings us his first Dallas training camp report of the new year.
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Nick Firchau of the Chicago Southtown Star with the story of Matt Pickens agreeing to a contract with Queens Park Rangers in the English Championship division.
-Firchau also reports that Polish forward Tomasz Frankowski will be with the Fire for training camp in Florida later this week.
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Luis Arroyave of the Chicago Tribune on the announcement by Fire midfielder Diego Gutierrez that this is his last season.
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Len Ziehm of the Chicago Sun Times on the opening of Chicago Fire preseason training.
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Bob Luder of the Kansas City Star wonders where the KC Wiz are gonna get their goals without Eddie Johnson.
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Luis Bueno of the Press Enterprise looks at Brad Guzan's return to Chivas USA after his English work permit was denied.
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MetroFanatic names the invited non-roster players who will join New York Red Bulls for training camp in California.
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The fans of Real Salt Lake at AYL Soccer have a new feature for us - its a split screen video interview with 2 of the teams players answering identical questions. It's fairly light hearted, so the players have a good time with it. Highly original stuff here, I like it. Here are the first 2:
-Rookies Anthony Beltran and David Horst
-Veterans Chris Wingert and Nick Rimando
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MLS Rumor City

Are we going to see the Verizon logo on the front of DC united shirts this season? That could be a biggy. It would be the biggest company to advertise on the front of an MLS shirt by far.
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So is Matt Pickens married to a French woman and therefore has an EU passport? That is the word going around! In that case he is most certainly off to QPR.
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Is Dallas left back Chris Gbandi headed to Haugesund in Norway or not?
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Buzz Carrick at 3rd Degree says that Dallas is getting closer and closer to landing Andre Rocha from Paranaense in Brazil. Cool.
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And The Sun newspaper in England says Derby County midfielder Bob Malcolm could be joining Dallas.
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Aston Villa coach Martin O'Neil has not given up on getting Brad Guzan on his team But how does he get it done?
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 8
Ventura County Fusion v Salt Lake - at Buena High in Ventura
-Sat Feb 9
Kansas City v Columbus - in Bradenton FL
Dallas v Centro America at PHP
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

Matches & Scores:
-Sun Feb 3
Bermuda 1-1 Cayman Islands - Berm goal by Tyrrell Burgess. Cay goal by Allaen Grant.
-Wed Feb 6
Dominica v Barbados
Belize v St Kitts & Nevis
Nicaragua v Netherlands Antilles
El Salvador v Anguilla
Turks & Caicos v St Lucia
Aruba v Antigua & Barbuda
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FMF

Graciela Resendiz of ESPNdeportes with a round up of the Mexican league.
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Copa Libertadores

The final qualifying round begins this week.
1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Feb 7
Chico v Audax Italiano

2nd leg Matches & Scores (with first leg scores included):
-Tue Feb 5
Mineros v Arsenal (0-2)
Lanus v Olmedo (0-1)
-Wed Feb 6
La Paz v Atlas (0-2)
Cerro Porteno v Cruzeiro (1-3)
-Thu Feb 7
Montevideo Wanderers v Cienciano (0-1)
-Tue Feb 12
Audax Italiano v Chico
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American's In Europe

Brad Friedel has extended his contract at Blackburn yet again, and is now signed through the 2010 season. He has played more times for Blackburn than anyone else in the history of the club.
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Robert Zeigler of Top Drawer Soccer is reporting that another young American has signed with Hertha Berlin - Ellis McLoughlin, who has been in the USA Residency Program in Bradenton FL.
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European News

Phil Ball of Soccernet sings the praises of Almeria for knocking off Real Madrid, and the rest of La Liga's news.
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England has named Steven Gerrard as their captain for Wednesday's match v Switzerland.
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Patrick Viera of Inter Milan was given a Red Card on Sunday for his abusive language toward the referee. The league have added a 2 game suspension on to that. It would be nice to see more of this.
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Football Italiano's Winners and Losers from Serie A Round 21.
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Rob Hughes of the International Herald Tribune sees Spain's lack of action against racism lead to horrible acts in other sports in that country.
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World News

Paul Gardner of the New York Sun looks at the worlds best players - Kaka is tops. Who comes next?
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African Cup of Nations

Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Sun Feb 3
Ghana 2-1 Nigeria - Ghan goals by Michael Essien & Junior Agogo. Nige goal by Yakubu(PK).
Ivory Coast 5-0 Guinea - Ivo goals by Abdulkader Keita, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou(2) & Bakari Kone.
-Mon Feb 4
Egypt 2-1 Angola Egy goals by Hosni Abd Rabou(PK) & Amr Zaki. Ang goal by Manucho.
Tunisia 2-3 Cameroon - Tun goals by Chouki Ben Saada & Yassine Chikhaoui. Cam goals by Stephane Mbia(2) & Geremi.
Semifinal Matches & Scores
-Thu Feb 7
Ivory Coast v Egypt
Ghana v Cameroon-Tunisia
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Greg Lalas on the New York Times Goal blog says the only thing that matters to African football fans is The Goal.