Tri-lateral Commission On Three Wheeled Choppers News

Thinking back on it, I am still stunned that Salt Lake lost their match to Lynn University. I have never heard of Lynn. Have you? I know its preseason and it simply does not matter in the big picture. But I think it does. When a big game comes up and the chips are down will there be one player on the field who does not quite have 100% confidence in their mind that had planted at this game. It could happen. Lynn, damn, come on guys.

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USL VP Tim Holt addresses First Division expansion: "Omaha (NE), Tulsa (OK), San Antonio (TX), Tampa (FL), Phoenix (AZ), Boise (ID), Oklahoma City (OK), Albuquerque (NM), Memphis (TN), and Birmingham (AL). We are currently in advanced discussions with interested parties in several of these markets."

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Colorado & Salt Lake will stage a practice version of the Rocky Mountain Cup battle tonight when they meet in a preseason match in Florida. Is it wrong of me to hope a fight breaks out?


MLS News

The Delco Times of suburban Philly talks to MLS HQ who say that Feb 28 is certainly NOT set in stone, and several things still need to be settled before a new team can be announced.
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Salt Lake acquired veteran midfielder Dema Kovalenko in exchange for a future draft pick to be determined. Hmmm. Always good to have veteran midfielders, but don't they have quite a few guys in the middle already?
-Here are their current 7: Kyle Beckerman, Mathias Cordoba, Kenny Cutler (does his mustache count as an extra player?), Javier Morales, Nathan Sturgis, Carey Talley & Andy Williams. This does not bode well for Kenny Cutler (or his cookie duster).
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Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports says LA is gonna play Beckman at his natural position this season - right midfield. Good move.
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The Chicago Fire has officially signed Polish forward Tomasz Frankowski from Wolverhampton in England. Press release.
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John Haydon of the Washington Times looks at the role defensive midfielder Clyde Simms will play for DC United this season.
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Steve Pastorino at the US National Soccer Players Assoc talks to Chicago's new Technical Director Frank Klopas.
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Big Apple Soccer figures that the New York Red Bulls have quite a bit of free space under the salary cap.
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BAS also reports that JP Dellacamera will NOT be calling Red Bulls games this year for local TV because his contract with ESPN will not allow it. Damn.
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New Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza broke his foot practice Wednesday. He will probably be out for a month.
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John Connolly of the Boston Herald previews the next segment of New England's preseason schedule - they head to Cancun.
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Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America with a great breakdown of 3 potential new MLS stadiums - Philadelphia, Houston and DC.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Fri Feb 22
San Jose v Columbus Crew at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
Colorado v Salt Lake in Fort Lauderdale FL
-Sat Feb 23
Columbus v Chivas USA in Santa Clarita CA
Dallas v West Texas A & M at PHP
-Sun Feb 24
San Jose v DC at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo
-Mon Feb 25
Ventura County Fusion v Columbus at Buena High in Ventura
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Pan-Pacific Championship

From Honolulu Hawaii, with all games to be shown on ESPN Classic. Here's the official website.
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Matches & Scores:
-Sat Feb 23 (actually early Sunday morning central time)
Championship: Osaka Gamba v Houston - live at 12:30am central time on ESPN Classic
Third Place: Los Angeles v Sydney - delayed at 2:30am central time on ESPN Classic
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Ives Galarcep of Soccernet previews the final.
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Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle reports on his Soccer y Futbol blog that Dwayne De Rosario will most likely NOT play Saturday after straining a muscle on Wednesday.
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Our friend Dave Brett Wasser at the New York Times Goal blog writes about the NON-excitement in Honolulu over the Pan Pacific Championship.
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Jen Chang at Soccernet with his thoughts on the Pan-Pacific.
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MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

Japanese forward Takayuki Suzuki has ended a tryout with Chivas USA, and is now getting one with San Jose. He even scored in a scrimmage v Cal Poly San Lius Obispo last night. (thanks to BP at the Soccer Spin for the heads up)
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There has been a lot of talk about New York playing a friendly in early August v Barcelona. But it's not true.
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Toronto is now saying that they have 1500 fans traveling to Columbus for the season opener. Wow.
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Say "Goodnight" Grandpa - New York cut loose forward Francis Grandpa Doe today. Damn.
-The Red Bulls also ended the try out of former player Diego Serna.
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USL First Division & PDL

USL Executive VP & COO Tim Holt held an online Q & A with fans this week. Here is Part 1 of the transcript.
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New team in 2009 from Austin TX has hired former longtime English player and coach Adrian Heath to be their first ever manager. Austin Aztex press release.
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The Portland Tribune with a story on new Timbers forward Chris Brown. He is a Portland native (Dirty Stinky Hippy) who has spent the last several years with several different MLS teams.
-Portland also re-signed key players Andrew Gregor (midfielder) & Cameron Knowles (defender).
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Team USA

Ian Plenderleith at the US National Soccer Players Assoc continues his position by position run down of the most capable players in the USA pool. Today - centerbacks.
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Americans In Europe

Midweek Game Action:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - did not get off the bench but the team score twice in the dying moments to draw 2-2 at Nurnberg and advance on aggregate in the UEFA Cup.
-Tim Howard - Everton - also in the UEFA Cup Tim-may played all 90 and stomped Brann 6-1. They advance 8-1 on aggregate.
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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 0-0 Fluminense
Arsenal 1-0 Libertad - goal by Luciano Leguizamon.
America 2-1 Universidad Catolica - Amer goals by Salvador Cabanas & Federico Higuain. UC goal by Dario Botinelli.
Maracaibo 1-1 Boca Juniors - Mar goal by Miguel Mea Vitali. Boca goal by Sebastian Battaglia.
-Thu Feb 21
Atlas 3-0 Colo Colo - goals by Bruno Marioni, Diego Colotto & Juan Carlos Medina.
Deportivo Cuenca 0-0 Danubio
San Lorenzo 0-0 Cruzeiro
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Group Stage Standings
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European News

Johan Cryuff's first move as the new Technical Director at Ajax is to hire Marco Van Basten as the new manager for next season. Van Basten will be in charge of Holland for Euro 08, then start his new job in Amsterdam.
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This weeks The Game podcast features a joint interview with Chelsea & England midfielder Frank Lampard together with former Italian great Gianluca Vialli.
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UEFA Champions League

Did you see the Celtic fans EXPLODE when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink scored that first goal v Barcelona. It was incredible!!! So intense. I loved it. That's what it's like when genuine fans, and not corporate partners, get all tickets.
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The reaction by the 2 players in the background of this picture is very typical of what you see every time the guy in foreground of the picture does what he is doing. He is something that I like to refer to as "The Best In The World".
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Football Italia talks to Fabio Capello about how the 3 Italian teams did in the Champions League this week.
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UEFA Cup

Bolton fans got beat up by Spanish police in Madrid during and after their game last night. The fans claim innocence. The police say there were provoked. One thing we do know, one side was armed and had the law on their side. Does the other side even stand a chance? Not likely.
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English League/Carling Cup - Final

-Sun Feb 24 at Wembley Stadium
Tottenham v Chelsea
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I asked an Arsenal fan which of his arch rivals he was pulling for. He said, "Can they both lose?"
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Key Euro League Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
-Sat Feb 23
Bayer Leverkusen v Schalke - #4 v a surging #5
Fulham v West Ham - a London derby
Sevilla v Zaragoza - two big underachievers try to make their move upward
-Sun Feb 24
Bayern Munchen v Hamburg - #1 v #3 in Germany
Blackburn v Bolton - the "We are both just North of Manchester, and hate each other in a small town way" derby
Roma v Fiorentina - long time rivals sees them with opposite momentum right now. Roma up, Fiore down.
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World News

The French national team announced that they are switching their shirt making alliance from Adidas to Nike. But that won't happen until 2011.
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Goal.com with their weekly column of soccer news bits and other seemingly random shit - Starting XI: Things We Wouldn't Bet Our Houses On.