Halfway Home For Old Groupies News

One of the biggest surprises in Holland this season is the rise of NAC Breda. And do you know who their technical director is? None other than Earnie Stewart! Yes'm, that's our man Earnie leading his team up the table. Fantastic.


MLS News

Luis Bueno at the Sideline View blog reports that Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan has sustained a knee injury and will be out for "several weeks". Not "a few", as in 2 or 3, but "several", as in probably more than 5.
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While Chicago and New York play tug of war with player Lidor Marmol, the man himself is now out of action. He pulled a hamstring muscle in a preseason game with the Red Bulls yesterday. They are saying 4-6 weeks out. Ouch.
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DC United has signed former Fulham youth player Dan Stratford. He is a midfielder.
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SoccerLens has a Q & A with Chivas USA forward Ante Razov.
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Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star talks to TFC main man Mo Johnston who says he likes what he sees out of his team.
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Bleacher Report has an article from a writer who has some great reasonings as to why every soccer fan should like MLS, and he feels the need to tell us about 3 little known Colorado players who he feels are ready to bust loose.
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Sports Business Journal ran an article yesterday showing MLS team-by-team breakdown of season ticket sales from last year and this year. Their site is a registered users only site, so I am going to direct you to someone who copied and pasted the article into a message board thread. Some really interesting stuff here, especially the Chivas USA season ticket sales, or non-ticket sales. (thanks to Paul for this one)
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AOL Sports calls new Houston owner Oscar De La Hoya the smartest businessman in sports. And yes this was written AFTER he bought the Dynamo.
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Ives Galarcep at Soccernet addresses the new problem of traveling fans in MLS.
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Steve Davis's MLSnet column Five-a-side: What's Hot Around MLS
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Real Salt Lake booked Sat Aug 9 as their second time to host namesake Real Madrid in Utah at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
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Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer does a Q & A with new Philadelphia team President Nick Sakiewicz.
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The Washington Post with an Editorial on the subject of a stadium for DC United.
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MLS Preseason Friendlies

Matches & Scores:
-Thu Mar 6
Arsenal Reserves (England) 2-1 Colorado In London at the Arsenal Training Centre
Match report from Colorado Rapids website.
Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) 2-3 New York in Salzburg
Match report by Michael Lewis of Big Apple Soccer.
Atlante (Mexico) 1-0 New England in Playa del Carmen
Match report from MLSnet.
Paranaense Reserves (Brazil) 0-2 Dallas at Kyocera Stadium in Curtiba Brazil
Match report from FC Dallas Updates.
Blackburn Reserves (England) 0-1 Columbus in Blackburn
Match report from the Columbus website.
Newell's Old Boys (Argentina) 1-1 Salt Lake in Rosario
Match report from RSL website.
-Fri Mar 7
Everton Reserves (England) v Columbus in Liverpool
-Sat Mar 8
Avai (Brazil) v Dallas at Gonder Stadium in Florianopolis Brazil
Hong Kong Union v Los Angeles in Hong Kong
-Sun Mar 9
Jockey Club Rosario (Brazil) v Salt Lake in Rosario
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In the Atlante v New England game the old Mexico v USA rivalry played out according to the script - 9 Yellow Cards (8 to NE) and 3 Red Cards (2 to NE). Ouch.
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New York came from a 2-0 deficit to win 2-3 over their mothership Red Bull Salzburg.
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George Tanner of the FC Rocky blog says Arsenal winger Theo Walcott strained a thigh muscle in the match v Colorado on Thursday.
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Texas Pro Soccer Festival

Preseason tournament March 3-9 in San Antonio TX. Here is the official website.
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Teams:
Chivas USA
DC United
Houston Dynamo
Toronto FC
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Matches & Scores:
-Wed Mar 5
Chivas 1-2 DC - Chiv goal by . DC goals by Quavas Kirk & Cezar.
Houston 4-3 Toronto - Hou goals by Brian Ching(2), Chris Wondolowski & Erik Ustruck. Tor goals by Tony Zairelles, Martin Britton & Kiki Musampa.
-Fri Mar 7
Toronto v DC
Chivas v Houston
-Sun Mar 9
Toronto v Chivas
Houston v DC
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MLS Rumors - Don't Tease Me Bro

The Kansas City Star is reporting that the Wizards are on the verge of signing Argentine great Claudio Lopez. I think it will take designated player money to get him, but he is a little past his golden age. so is it worth it?
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Steven Goff of the Soccer Insider says that we may not have seen the last of Roberto Mina.
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A Scottish forward named Tom McManus is getting a try out with Colorado. He plays for Dunfermline.
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Was that Michael "He's-gonna-be-a-fookin-star-so-we-gotta-cap-him-now" Ricketts playing for Columbus against the Blackburn Reserves yesterday? Crewture with more.
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The Washington Nationals baseball team had built a Pro-Shop at RFK stadium to sell their wears, and now that they are gone its going to be converted into a DC United shop. Cool.
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USL First Division & PDL News

Charleston has signed Cuban defector Lester More. He left his team during the Gold Cup last summer and sought asylum in the United States. He plays forward.
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USA Olympic Team

Official team blog.
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US Soccer has an audio interview an interview with coach Peter Nowak and forward Jozy Altidore. Download or Listen here. Or read a transcript here.
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US Soccer also gives us the latest news, updates and trivia from the team camp.
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And the teams official website has a Q & A with Toronto fullback Marvell Wynne.
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Soccer In America

Andrea Canales on the Sideline Views blog reports that another writer for the LA Daily News that sometimes covered soccer, Paul Oberjuerge, was shown the door. That's 2 in one week at that paper. Canales tells us what will be missed most - Oberjuerge's tight connection with Landon Donovan.
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Americans In Europe

The Philadelphia Inquirer with a big story on local boy Bobby Convey and his career so far.
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Yanks Abroad talks to Hansa Rostock coach Frank Pagelsdorf about bringing Heath Pearce back into the team after saying "He will never play for me again."
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Ravi Ubha at Soccernet talks to Steve Cherundolo of Hannover about club and country.
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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports on the possibility that 9 American players could be relegated from the Premier League this season.
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Matches in the UEFA Cup on Thursday night:
-Freddy Adu - Benfica - Freddy is away with the USA Olympic team, and his team lost 1-2 at home to Getafe.
-Tim Howard - Everton - went the distance in goal as usual, and all reports say he was amazing, but they still lost 2-0 on the road at Fiorentina.
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CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying

FIFA.com gives us a look at the Bermuda national team as they try to advance in qualifying. And yes, Khano Smith is there "star" player.
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Copa Libertadores

Group Stage Matches & Scores:
-Tue Mar 4
Santos 1-0 Chivas Guadalajara - goal by Mauricio Molina.
Liga D Univ Quito 2-0 Libertad - goals by Patricio Urrutia & Joffre Guerron.
Cruzeiro 3-0 Caracas - goals by Guilherme, Ramires & Marcelo Moreno. (we ran a feature story on Moreno yesterday - check it out)
-Wed Mar 5
Danubio 1-2 Estudiantes - Dan goal by Edro Irala. Est goals by Juan Sebastian Veron(PK) & Enzo Perez.
Fluminense 6-0 Arsenal - Wow - Flum goals by Thiago Neves, Dodo(2), Gabriel, Washington & Cicero
Sao Paulo 2-1 Audax Italiano - Sao goals both by Adriano. Aud goal by Carlos Villenueva.
-Thu Mar 6
Atletico Nacional 3-0 Sportivo Luqueno - AN goals by Sergio Galvan Rey, Carlos Villagra & Carmelo Valencia.
Nacional 3-0 Flamengo - Nac goals by Richard Morales(2) & Bruno Fornaroli.
Boca Juniors 3-0 Atlas - Boca goals by Rodrigo Palacios(2) & Martin Palermo.
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Group Stage Standings
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All three games last night ended 3-0 to the home team.
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European News

Just days after being appointed the man to bring Ajax back to glory, Johan Cruyff. But after initial meetings went badly and the ownership could not come to an agreement with Cruyff on the plan to move forward, he decided to walk away immediately. So where does this leave Marco Van Basten who Cruyff hired to be the coach?
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Could Milan & Italy legend Paolo Maldini be changing his mind about retiring after this season? It seems very possible.
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Soon-to-be-Star Karim Benzema has signed a new contract with his club Lyon through the 2014 season. The dollar amount was not known but he is now said to be the highest paid player in France.
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In Turkey only 1 point separates the top 4 teams in the league. Now THAT is a race I would like to see.
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For many years Inter Milan has talked about moving out of the San Siro stadium that they share with AC Milan, but now it might really happen. They have found a piece of land and are moving forward with plans. NO dates set for building or anything like that.
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Italy & Real Madrid defender Fabio Cannavaro has been named Italy's 2008 Gay Icon.
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Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times Goal blog wonders if football could bring peace to Chechnya. The story has some really good links to other interesting stories on Chechnya. Great stuff here.
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UEFA Cup

Round of 16 - 1st leg Matches & Scores:
-Thu Mar 6
Anderlecht 0-5 Bayern - Bay goals by Hamit Altintop, Luca Toni, Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose & Franck Ribery.
Rangers 2-0 Werder - Ran goals by Daniel Cousin & Steven Davis.
Bolton 1-1 Sporting - Bol goal by Gavin McCann. Spor goal by Simon Vukcevic.
Leverkusen 1-0 Hamburg - Lev goal by Theofanis Gekas.
Benfica 1-2 Getafe - Ben goal by Mantorras. Get goals by Ruben De La Red & Pablo Hernandez.
Fiorentina 2-0 Everton - Fior goals by Zdravko Kuzmanovic & Riccardo Montolivo.
Tottenham 0-1 PSV - PSV goal by Jefferson Farfan.
Marseille 3-1 Zenit - Mars goals by Djibril Cisse(2) & Mamadou Niang. Zen goal by Andrei Arshavin.
-2nd leg matches will be played Mar 12 & 13.
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Franck Ribery scored Bayern Munich's final goal v Anderlecht, and got a quick 100 Euro for his troubles. Right before he took the kick his teammate Marc Van Bommel said to him "I bet you 100 Euro you won't make this." Ribery took the bet, and then took Van Bommel's money.
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Euro League Cup Competitions

-English FA Cup-
Quarterfinal Matches & Scores:
-Sat Mar 8
Manchester United v Portsmouth
Barnsley v Chelsea
-Sun Mar 9
Middlesbrough v Cardiff City
Bristol Rovers v West Bromwich Albion
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The Guardian with a story going back to Barnsley's glory days.
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Big Euro Club Matches This Weekend

Scores & Matches:
-Sat Mar 8
Real Madrid v Espanyol - Just as Barcelona had to play Madrid's crosstown rival last week, we reserve the stream this week and Madrid play Barca's crosstown nemesis.
Stuttgart v Werder Bremen - last years champs (this years bums) v this years contenders/pretenders
-Sun Mar 9
Lyon v Bordeaux - #1 v #2 in France, and if Bordeaux win the two will be tied on points. Lyon have won 6 league titles in a row, and this is the first time they have been challenged in those years.
PSV Eindhoven v Ajax Amsterdam - #1 v #2 in Holland, with PSV leading by 6 points.
Barcelona v Villarreal - #2 v #3 in Spain.
Napoli v Roma - a rivalry as old as the hills. And Napoli has yet to lose at home this season.
Guimaraes v Sporting Lisbon - surprise #3 hosts #1 in Portugal.
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World News

Soccer365 with a story on the Monterrey, Mexico derby. I love stories about derby's.
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South & North Korea will play their Mar 26 World Cup qualifier on neutral ground in Shanghai.
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Ben Knight of the Toronto Globe & Mail On Soccer blog with his thoughts on FIFA uberboss Sepp Blatter's latest pontifications.